Time to Fight Back
by kittycow2004
Summary: Chris and Melinda Halliwell have never had the best of luck, everything that could go wrong normally does. This leads Chris to run away to a dangerous job and Melinda to leave San Francisco in an attempt to create a more peaceful existence. That peace is shattered when a darkness from their childhood returns and threatens all they have, including their only chance for true love. AU
1. Chapter 1

This story is one of the first ones that I have published in many years, I apologize to anyone that followed and has been disappointed in a lack of content recently. I hope that I am a better writer now than I was and that all of you enjoy this entry.

If any of you have read the Drake sisters novels and the Sisters of the Heart books by Christine Feehan the story takes the characters of the Drake sisters' children and has them come into contact with Chris and Melinda Halliwell. Its AU in that it's the future after Chris fixed the past, but not necessarily a much better place other than Wyatt being inherently good rather than inherently evil.

If you have questions about the new characters please ask! I would much rather answer than leave people frustrated and confused.

* * *

Melinda pulled up behind the club and killed the engine. Today was the day, the soft opening had gone really well and now she just needed the grand opening to go even better. She needed the club packed with people; people who would be drinking, dancing and having the best night of their lives. People who would spend money and help get her well-meaning cousins off her back.

Mel knew that she had taken a huge risk in moving to Sea Haven and opening her own club. P3 was still doing really well and she could have continued to manage it, continued to follow an easy path. But, San Francisco hadn't felt like home since Piper had died and P3 was more a monument to her in Melinda's mind than a business. She needed something new and fresh to take her mind off the bad luck, sorrow, and pain that seemed to follow her everywhere. She had left P3 in the very capable hands of her cousin Primrose and traveled north. There had been several properties that she had looked at but, this old club and town had pulled at her the most. Added to it that there were already dominant families meant that she could for once fade into the background where she wanted to be.

Melinda opened the back door and stepped into _her_ club. _Speakeasy to Me_ was both a salute to the speakeasy the family had run in the 1920s and to Sea Haven's once dubious past as a smuggling route. Melinda left the door open for Camille when she came in later and walked through making sure everything was in place, the bar was fully stocked, the kitchen had everything it needed for the small dishes she offered and the band area had all the equipment for the band that night. The brass features sparkled, the glass behind the bar shone, and the leather seats of the booths and stools was freshly polished. She had gone for a 1920s vibe, which at nearly a 100 years old was coming back into style.

She was on the phone and doubling checking with the band that they would be there by 5 to set up and run a sound check when Cami came in. Camille Drake was the 3rd of the 7 daughters of Elle and Jackson Drake, and Melinda couldn't quite put her finger on what bothered her about Camille, but she was a damn good cook. Melinda knew that there was a great deal more to the whole family than people let on, but no one was ready to open up to her just yet.

Cami had her blonde hair bundled up in a knot, her chocolate colored eyes taking in the club as she scanned for Melinda. Spotting her, Camille smiled and walked over and Melinda hung up.

"The band on their way?" she asked.

"Yeah, they have all the people and all their instruments, a set list, and are ready to rock. We shouldn't have any issues where they are concerned. I'm a little worried that we will run out of vodka though, do you think I should run to the store, maybe grab some more?" Melinda pushed a hand through her long brown hair, the brow above her green eyes deeply etched in stress and worry.

"Mellie, sit," Camille gently guided her to a stool and pushed her into it. "Take a deep breath, we know that we have plenty of everything. Everyone in town is very excited that you took this old place and made it new and better."

Melinda laughed, "Not all of them. Some were hoping the big city girl would fall flat on her face and give up." She sighed and looked around, "They don't understand that I refuse to give up. I'm going to make my mark as more than Piper's daughter and Wyatt's little sister."

Melinda popped up again and was about to launch into some new task when her phone beeped.

Chris had sent her a brief message:

 **Jumping a fire north of you, send blessings she's a big dragon. Love ya Pig.**

Melinda quickly switched on the TV set behind the bar and went to the news.

"Did Chris get a fire?" Camille asked.

"Yeah, he's being sent here to California so it must be a bad one. The Zulies will jump in other states, but this season has kept him in Montana mostly." Melinda scanned the news looking for something about a wildfire in a California national park. "Chris mentioned that he can't remember a season that's already been this busy. I hope he doesn't get tired and do something stupid." Melinda glanced at the pictures that hung behind the bar, there was one of Piper behind the bar at P3, Melinda, Piper, Chris and Wyatt at home, and finally Melinda, Chris, and Wyatt behind the bar at P3.

Melinda tucked her hair back and deliberately turned off the news, Chris would text her when he was home safe and could be out there multiple days. Getting worked up about it was not going to help either of them.

"What made your brother want to jump out of a plane into wildfires anyway?" Camille started back to the kitchen and began prep for service as Melinda sat at a nearby counter and worked on paperwork.

"He's always wanted to fight fire, to help the forests and wildlife. This is the top of the game, and that's where he wanted to be. He started as a firefighter, moved to hotshot and now a smoke jumper. Makes me nervous all summer, and I wait for him to tell me he's alright after every jump but this is what makes Chris, well Chris. He wouldn't be the same if he did something else." Melinda again mentally wished him well, it was more than just dangerous that he was jumping out of planes; since Piper had died anything they did were they could get hurt was potentially life-threatening. Melinda mentally cursed herself for allowing even a glimmer of thought about her father to darken her big day, she resolutely put him out of her mind.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of setting up, welcoming the band and getting the staff ready. Soon after opening Melinda didn't have time to worry about Chris and the fire as she was running everywhere to make sure there were no problems here.

She spotted the rest of Camille's sisters sitting at one table and some of their many cousins floating through the crowd. Melinda couldn't recall another family she knew that had so many children. Camille was one of 7 girls and had an aunt that had 7 boys, and another aunt with 6 children. The Halliwells had always considered 3 each to be big.

Kyle the bartender was quickly filling a large order, Melinda swung up to the bar to grab it. She didn't trust her waitress, Nicole, to not drop it.

"Who's all this for?" She asked as she reached for the full tray.

"The Prakenskii boys, they all came in en masse after the Drake sisters. I'm lucky Nicole was smart enough to not take 14 orders at once and left it at 5. Even with two of the boys out of town this is going to be a bitch for her to lift." Kyle doubled checked the drinks and nodded to himself.

"Which is why I'm taking it, she'll just drop it and I'll have to start taking it out of her paycheck. I think at this point she owes me money for broken glassware and liquor."

"Be careful, those brothers run in a pack and are liable to get rowdy. Doesn't help their dad and most of their uncles are cops, they never get in real trouble."

Melinda smiled and hefted the tray, "Don't worry about me. I can handle anything those boys decide to dish out."

She worked her way through the crowd mentally checking that the tables were clean and people were enjoying themselves.

The Prakenskii brothers had gathered in a corner, the Drake sisters and the Harrington kids, who were also their cousins were all sitting nearby. Melinda scooted between tables and handed drinks to the right brothers as she called them out. Glancing around their little corner it seemed that they were all having a good time, ragging on each other and in the boys' case daring them to talk to various women in the room.

Melinda spoke to the oldest of the brothers Alexi, "You know I'm starting to think this whole town is pranking me that there are 7 of you since I've only ever seen you 5."

Alexi smiled and took his drink, "No worries Melinda, Brody and Gavin will be back from their assignment with the county soon enough. You'll probably be wishing that they had stayed away."

One of the Drake girls, Bethany if she remembered correctly, called out to her.

"Melinda, sit down for a minute. You must be running yourself ragged right now. Everything is going great and you deserve a quick break."

"Thanks, but I need to check on everyone, and make sure the band has water and stuff." Melinda smiled at them all and was turning to leave when Bethany stood up.

"Can you get us a round then? Nicole was too busy staring deeply into Nicolas's eyes to notice that she only got the boys' drinks." Bethany gave a quick shrug and smiled. "I didn't want to interrupt since Nicolas was having such a good time."

The remark brought a quick round of laughter and Nicolas threw his napkin at her.

"Sure, what do you guys want?" Melinda quickly took the orders, ignored two more attempts to get her to sit down and hurried back to the bar.

The rest of the night progressed in much the same way. Melinda kept drinks flowing, the band was hot, and the dance floor packed. Various Drakes tried to get her to take a break, but she mostly ignored them and plowed through the nerves and exhaustion and allowed the joy that was breaking through to power her.

Melinda found herself around 4am sitting on a barstool and drinking water with Camille and as the last of the staff left after setting the club mostly to rights.

"Be proud," Camille advised as she rubbed her feet and drank her own water. "4am for Sea Haven is basically unheard of. This is a small town in Northern California and I feel like I lived in LA for a night."

"Haha, LA is still partying believe me. But this was really good, I am both incredibly happy and tired that we managed to pull this off. Even with your sisters trying to get me to sit down every 10 minutes."

Camille smiled, "They worry about you working too much, and I think they wouldn't as much if you didn't live here by yourself. If it makes you feel better they totally came into the kitchen to see if I needed a break too."

Melinda turned as the door opened, but relaxed when she saw it was just Andrei Prakenskii the second oldest of the brothers in his deputy's uniform.

"Hey Cami," he walked over to them and sat next to Camille. "Your mom asked me to come by after you had closed and see if you wanted a ride home instead of driving."

"Aren't you supposed to be working?" Camille asked.

"Yeah, but part of being a sheriff's deputy is making sure all the businesses are good and locked up." Andrei smiled at her, his blue eyes twinkling as Camille rolled hers. "You know your mom is worried about you managing the switchbacks over the coast after working so late."

"Fine," Camille grabbed her bag and stood up. "It's going to be easier for me to agree and go with you rather than fight my mom on this. Bye, Melinda, have a good rest of the night."

"A wise move," Andrei said as he stood as well. "Melinda, I can give you a ride too, it's not out of the way."

"But, then I would not have a ride back to my car. It's just easier to drive myself. If I get too tired I'll call my cousin she'll be getting ready to close her club right now too." Melinda waved at both of them and packed up her purse.

As she locked the back door and headed to her car and shiver went down her spine. Melinda quickly shoved her keys into her back pocket to keep her hands free and focused her senses. She hadn't been bothered by demons since she moved, but that by no means meant that they would be leaving her alone.

After a few moments of listening, and watching the shadows Melinda headed to her car. She rolled her shoulders and tried to relax as she drove home, but couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She didn't look up as she walked inside the house, and missed the dense fog almost like smoke that covered the moon, blocking its light.

* * *

Chris chugged water from his bottle as he squinted into the smoke that surrounded him. Normally, he enjoyed himself as he fought fire and could see that they were coming out on top. But all season there had been one big fire after another and the team had dealt with serious problems nearly every jump.

Equipment malfunctioning, or not working at all, people getting sick or hurt, fire seeming to snap back to life after being put down. Chris used his bandana to wipe more sweat from his face and prayed that this one would be done soon.

"Hey Surfer," the job boss called his nickname over the sound of men working and fire roaring in the background. "Come here, we need to think of a new plan of attack."

Chris trudged over to Mike and waited to be told what the new plan was.

"Ok Surfer, you and Zane are going to walk the line and put out anything that she decided to spit out in front and to the sides. Make sure you stamp out every little ember, we need to be putting her down and out. Once you walk it out, meet up with the pump line and soak everything in front of us, hopefully we can take a quick break." Chris nodded as Mike talked and looked on the map following the line and where the pump would be. The two men shook hands and broke apart, there was still quite a lot of work to do.

Chris grabbed his pike and shovel and motioned to Zane to follow him.

"We're walking the line and putting out all the embers, make sure we get everything," Chris spoke quickly and was already walking as Zane grabbed his gear and followed him.

Chris and Zane worked for a while before Chris realized what the itch down his back was from. It was quiet, too quiet. He had jumped fire with Zane for 3 years now, the man literally whistled as he worked, the men had nicknamed him Happy the previous years. But this season, and particularly today there wasn't a sound to be heard from him.

Chris straightened from where he had been examining a small spot that he has stamped out and studied Zane from a distance. The man had been off all season and hadn't been talking to anyone like he normally did.

"Hey," Chris called out, waiting until Zane had turned and was looking at him. "How's your girl doing? I haven't heard you bring her up all season."

"Girl?" Zane questioned. Chris noticed that he didn't sound right, and tensed as Zane started walking toward him.

"Yeah, Sarah. You mentioned last summer that you were thinking of proposing, did you?" Chris shifted his stance just enough that he could block a hit if Zane struck out at him. He was frantically trying to think of what Zane was reminding him of. Or who.

"Oh, Halliwell. That girl is long gone, mortals can be so tiring don't you think." Zane continued to walk closer, a strange and sinister smile stretching over his face.

"What are you talking about Zane?" Chris looked for something, anything to hit him with. He didn't want to use his powers with all the others so close, he didn't want the Cleaners to get involved. It suddenly came to him what Zane had been reminding him of, only demons ever said Halliwell with that combination of fear and loathing.

"What? How? You're human, I know you are!" Chris started walking backward much faster.

Zane hefted his pike and threw it with an accuracy and force that could not be attained by a mortal, it struck Chris high in his left shoulder and took him to the ground. Swearing heavily, Chris tried to pull it free but it was lodged too deeply and the angle wasn't good. Zane stepped over him and easily reached down and pulled the pike up.

"I've waited quite a long time to kill another Halliwell, somehow having to make your mother's death look like a mortal burglar did it took some of the fun out of it. This time I'll have to claim it as my own work." Zane swung down and hit Chris over his right knee laughing as Chris screamed in pain. Chris attempted to roll away, to roll anywhere away from the laughing madman that he was trapped with in a burning wilderness. He couldn't even call out to his family because if they landed wrong they could be burned in the fire.

"You couldn't have killed my mom, you're younger than me." Chris made it to a halfway sitting position and stared down his attacker.

"Do you really think this is the real Zane? I needed to get close to you, all the Underworld knows that Halliwells have some sort of trigger for danger coming at them. Here you would think it was anything but your friend, you wouldn't think to be watching your own back." The man allowed his eyes to turn black, showing his true self. A possessor demon, something that could take over the body of almost anyone.

"You see I'm going to be the demon that takes out all of you new little demon fighters, did you think that you could really beat us? The Charmed Ones couldn't defeat us so how could Piper's second son that everyone knows is weaker than Wyatt? You should have put up more of a fight really, oh well." The demon hefted the pike again, and Chris used that moment where the demon was distracted to fling his arm out, throwing the body of his friend, and hopefully the spirit of the demon into the fire.

"And you should've have known it wasn't going to actually be that easy" Chris panted from his prone position. The effort of using his telekinesis combined with the blood loss almost made him pass out, he forced himself to stay aware. The fire was still burning, he could not afford to lose consciousness and be hurt even worse. He also needed to stay alive to warn his family, there was no guarantee that he had killed the demon.

He shut his eyes as the screams started and prayed that Zane was unaware of all that had happened. Chris wiped the tears and sweat from his face and forced himself to crawl/ drag himself to where his pack had fallen. He managed not to cry more as he pulled the radio out using his good arm, and ignoring the blood that pooled around him radioed Mike for help.

He had one last thought as he was strapped into the lift for the helicopter, Melinda was going to be pissed at him for getting this seriously injured.

* * *

I will try and update as soon as possible, but with the best writing I can manage as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Here is the next installment. Again, let me know if there are any questions or confusion! Please enjoy!

* * *

Melinda ran frantically through the halls of the hospital the last words of Chris's supervisor Mike echoing in her head.

 _Chris was attacked by a coworker in the fire. Looks like the guy tried to run and got trapped in the middle of a flare-up. Chris is in pretty bad shape, we had him airlifted to a hospital in California that's pretty close to where you live. You need to get there Melinda, he's really hurt._

Her breath kept wanting to get backed up in her lungs, but she refused to allow the panic to overtake her until she knew what was going on. She all but launched herself on the nurses' station of the ICU and made the poor woman sitting behind it jump.

"I need Christopher Halliwell's room number and doctor, please!"

"Only family is allowed to see ICU patients ma'am." The nurse gave her a weak smile and leaned a little away from the sweaty panicked woman in her pajamas that was pushing herself against the station.

"I'm family!" Melinda opened her wallet and took out her ID, shoving it under the woman's nose. "Look, same last name and everything. His boss called me and said that he would be here!"

"Ok then ma'am, let me page the attending and he can walk you down and explain everything. Ok?"

"Yes, that would be good, thank you." Melinda paced the floor of the hospital for what felt like hours waiting on the doctor to come upstairs and take her to her brother. Finally she spotted a man in his mid-30s wearing a white lab coat that was coming toward her.

"Ms. Halliwell?" He asked as he extended his hand toward her.

"Yes, how is he? Permanent damage? Surgery? What's going on?" Melinda nearly reached out and grabbed the doctor's white jacket before she remembered herself.

"Your husband is fine," the doctor began.

"Eww, he's my brother," Melinda interrupted with a grimace.

The doctor gave her a slight smile and continued, "Your brother is fine. There was a need for surgery to clean the wounds on his shoulder and thigh, smoke inhalation, stitches to close the wounds. We want to keep a close eye on him because of the threat of inflection. He was hit with a fireman's pickaxe that had been used in a fire and was also covered in dirt, being hit with that near major muscles and arteries is a concern."

"Ok, but he's going to live?"

"Yes," the smile slipped away to be replaced by a frown. "Did someone lead you to believe that your brother was in serious danger of dying?"

Melinda pushed a hand through her hair, "His supervisor said I needed to be here as soon as possible. I just grabbed my purse and ran to the car, didn't ask any more questions."

"I see," he looked her up and down. It was clear to Melinda that he didn't approve of her traveling gnome themed pajama pants or the garden shoes she'd shoved on her feet running out the door.

"Well, he will hopefully make a full and speedy recovery, though he is not going to be able to fight anymore fires this season. Once the wounds are healed he will need PT to make sure the muscles and nerves aren't too damaged." He started down the hall and swiped his keycard over a panel. "If you follow me I can take you to see him."

Melinda blew out a long breath and followed the doctor down the twisty winding halls of the hospital. The antiseptic smell of cleaner and bleach followed them and made her noise twitch. She was also having a hard time keeping her barriers up as the emotions of staff, patients and family assailed her mind. Working at the club had kept her in practice, but the fear and stress of the last few hours had exhausted her.

"Your brother is in here, he's being kept in the ICU as we watch for inflection, no more than two people at a time in the room. I was informed that the police will be coming by for a statement since he was attacked in California." The doctor paused outside one of the rooms, the curtains had been drawn over the glass wall windows to afford some more privacy. Taped to Chris's door was the fireman's insignia so all the staff knew that he worked for the fire departments; the nurses tried to go out of their way to help fireman and police officers if they were injured in the line of duty.

Melinda stood by the door and offered her hand, "Thank you so much for talking to me and easing my mind. We are a really small family and I know that I wigged big time that something had happened to my brother. Also, thank you for taking such good care of him, and continuing to." She shook hands with him and walked into her brother's hospital room.

Shock had her going absolutely still. She hadn't spent much time in hospitals growing up, her aunts had had their babies at birth centers and before Piper died Leo had healed most of the injuries they had gotten. Once Wyatt had gotten some medical experience and small healing powers he had taken over, or if it was really bad they had gone to the ER and gotten fixed up. But none of them had ever had to stay overnight, much less in the ICU, despite all the demon hunts they had continued to attend as older teens and young adults.

There were machines that were attached all over her brother, monitoring his heart, lungs, blood pressure, and brain activity. Chris seemed so still and pale tucked under the white sheet with bandages apparent over his left shoulder and crossing over his chest. His breath seemed to barely move the sheet, but at least he was breathing on his own and only had the little plastic thing that went into his nostrils, not the tube down his throat. He appeared so different from the sarcastic older brother that had teased her growing up and had never been able to sit still. Her mother used to joke that Chris didn't know the meaning of the word relax; and since he was also a sleepwalker as a child she had to tie bells to his ankle to make sure he stayed in the house. The image of him completely still and quiet was jarring to Melinda, she nearly backed away from the room.

Melinda stepped over to the side of the bed and choked back tears, she refused to lose it now. It was clear that he was going to be ok, he just had to get through the risk of infection and he would be fine. She dropped into the uncomfortable chair by his right side and pushed back his hair that always managed to fall into his face.

"Hey there Christopher Robin, it's me, it's Piglet. You focus on getting better now you hear? I'm sitting here and I'm not going anywhere until I know you're going to be up and kicking ass again. I'm waiting right here, ok? Piglet is not going anywhere today." Melinda curled up in the chair, she had only managed two hours of sleep before the phone call had woken her up. She had called Camille and told her that she couldn't open the club that night; Primrose was coming in to act as manager. She knew that Camille would handle anything that Primrose was uncertain of, and that any of the other girls had P3 under control.

Melinda pulled out her phone and sent the group text to all her cousins,

 **Chris is going to be fine. In ICU for infection risks, no more fires for the summer. Staying here until he wakes up at least.**

After checking her email and reading the responses from her cousins, most that signaled relief, and one promise to call Wyatt on the satellite phone and let him know what was up, Melinda settled deeper into the chair and fell asleep.

* * *

Gavin Prakenskii walked down the halls of the hospital with his aunt Dr. Libby Drake Tyson as she ran through Chris Halliwell's injuries for him.

"Pickaxe to the left shoulder and right upper thigh, smoke inhalation and bruising. He lost a great deal of blood and had to be shocked back on the helicopter when they were almost here. He managed to get out that it was a Zane something when he radioed in to his supervisor, but was kinda out of it by the time they found him. He woke up briefly after surgery and then went under again. Dr. Sloane told me his sister arrived a few hours ago and hasn't left yet, and Halliwell hasn't woken up since the surgery."

Libby pushed black hair out of her face as she walked with her nephew and consulted the chart notes in front of her. "He must be a strong young man to survive such an attack and have the wherewithal to crawl to his pack and radio for help." She frowned as she read over the previous injuries that were listed in his medical data, lots of sprained joints and muscles and his arm had already been broken twice. Some of that could be explained by being a hotshot and smoke jumper, but some injuries were much older.

Gavin nodded as he listened to his aunt, her report jived with everything the Forestry Service had passed along to the Sheriff's office. He just needed Christopher Halliwell to confirm that one Zane Mikos had attacked him, run away or left him to die and then had been consumed by the fire himself. His older brothers Andrei and Gregory had just left to retrieve the body and take it into the morgue. The Forestry Service had argued it should go back to Montana with them, but the attack and death had happened in California so the body was staying here.

"Aunt Libby, you've met Melinda Halliwell right? She's the one that opened the new bar and hired Cami. What are your impressions?" Gavin wanted to have an idea about the family before he met and talked with him. It would help him piece together the small details in the statements.

Libby stopped walking and pushed more hair back into the twist it had started out in that morning. She frowned thoughtfully as she aligned what she was going to say to her nephew. Gavin waited patiently, he knew Libby would take some time to spit out what she was thinking, but it was always on target since she was an empath.

"She's very nice and quiet, wants to handle everything on her own. Cami told us that her mother died when she was very young, and since she doesn't mention the father it's assumed that he isn't in the picture or never was. But," here Libby frowned and seemed as though she was debating whether or not to continue. "I can't get a read off her. As in nothing. Yes," she said nodding at her nephew's frown.

"I'm a strong empath, so is Elle, Hannah, and of course most of Elle's daughters. None of us have ever been able to read her emotions or thoughts. It's odd, but she could have very strong natural barriers. There are some people that do, your Uncle Jonas is one."

"Yeah," Gavin agreed quietly and scratched his blond hair into disarray and looked into his aunt's large green eyes. "But Uncle Jonas has a small amount of psychic power himself. Could this girl?"

Libby frowned and tapped her finger against her lips, "Perhaps, but power is rare. It might just be a natural barrier. Anyways, that's not why you are here, she's in there with her brother, but I can pull her out and talk about his treatment while you question him."

"Sounds good to me," Gavin agreed and they proceed down the hall talking of family business until his aunt stopped outside one room.

"This is Christopher Halliwell's room."

Gavin nodded and opened the door and peeked in. He saw the young man in the bed watching the TV on mute and a younger woman dead asleep crammed into one of the chairs. While the young man looked pale and exhausted, he looked much better than Gavin would have thought after being attacked in the woods. Chris, Gavin assumed, glanced at his uniform for the Sheriff's Department and nodded. Switching the TV off, he tried to lean over and shake his sister awake.

"Here, let me. No need to pull stitched out or hurt yourself more," Gavin said and quickly stepped over the chair. Chris nodded and slumped back on the bed, his right hand going to his left should as he grimaced in pain.

Gavin reached down and gently shook her shoulder, speaking at the same time, "Ms. Halliwell? Would you wake up please?"

Melinda shot awake and sprang nearly out of the chair, the top of her head making sudden and furious contact with Gavin's chin.

"Ouch!"

"Shit!"

Gavin massaged his chin and wondered if it was going to bruise, also inwardly cursing that he had shouted a curse word in front of his aunt, who would tell his mother, who would in turn yell at him. He finally glanced down at the young woman that was massaging the top of her head and scowling at her brother who had been laughing since they had smacked into each other. The world seemed to stop spinning as his dark blue eyes met her green ones.

He had heard his father, uncles, and older brothers describe the feeling that swept through them when they had finally met their soul mates. That one woman that was out there for every Prakenskii man, the itch that settled deep in his palm, the feeling of his world being tipped and then centered on her, and the knowledge that he was never not going to want her. It was part of their family line, all the couples were destined and the man knew the minute that his eyes met those of his soul mate.

Gavin knew in the back of his head that he was staring, that he hadn't spoken in the last few moments, that his hand was killing him, and Chris and Melinda were both staring at him with some alarm.

"Are you ok?" Melinda asked, she reached out to touch his arm and he sprang away from her.

Gavin tamped down the panic that had swept through him and attempted to seem a little less crazy. "Yes, sorry. You knocked me pretty good, I'm sorry I didn't think that I was going to scare you like that." He took several steps back and stood more at the foot of the hospital bed, out of touching distance. The panic continued to want to climb up his throat and strangle him, it was not how he had envisioned this moment happening.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too. I guess you scared me, uh who are you?" Melinda sat back down and exchanged a glance with her brother. He shrugged that he had no idea, then grabbed his shoulder again.

"Gavin Prakenskii, I'm with the sheriff's department and need to talk to your brother about what happened out in that fire. In fact, my aunt Libby is waiting just outside to talk to you more about your brother's treatment after he's released and what not." Gavin took out his notepad as he talked and nervously rubbed his nose. He desperately needed get the girl outside before he freaked more, or worse touched his hand to hers and bound them together.

"Oh, the missing little brother. I've met most of your family through Camille and I was just teasing them that I didn't think you actually existed. It's so nice to finally meet you, please I'm so sorry that I hit you like that." Melinda sat up straighter and moved to stand up so she could shake his hand.

"Oh, uh, haha. Yes, my brothers enjoy teasing me about work and stuff. But, I really need to get your brother's statement so we can clear all this up." Gavin pretended to not see Melinda's hand stretched out and flipped through his notebook quickly. The blank pages blurred as he flipped, desperately trying to avoid her gaze.

Melinda frowned, but walked out of the room after exchanging a long look with her brother. They were going to have a long chat when she came back in.

Gavin breathed a silent sigh of relief when she walked out of the room, he was going to get this statement and leave to find his dad as soon as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

here is the next chapter of the story. Please review! Sorry for the long wait.

* * *

Chris frowned as Melinda left the room and looked that the young police officer that was standing at the foot of the bed. "Is everything ok?"

The young man scratched his nose and nodded jerkily, "Of course, just need to get your statement so we can clear all this up." He once again flipped through the pages of his notepad, this time going back to the beginning.

"We have on record that you and Zane Mikos were sent down the line to dig breaks, stamp out small fires and make sure that the back end didn't come back to life. That while you were alone with Mr. Mikos he attacked you and then was somehow consumed into the wildfire that you were fighting. Would you say that this is accurate?" Gavin looked up inquiringly at Chris, his pen was posed over the pad to add details or change the chain of events.

Chris adjusted himself on the bed, straightening the sheets and stalling for what to say. The truth that a demon had possessed his friend, attacked him, and was then hurled into the fire through telekinesis was not going to work. He had to walk the Halliwell line, as Wyatt called it, that fine line between truth and keeping the most important secret any of them had been entrusted with.

"That sounds pretty accurate, I have to be honest I don't know what happened to him after he hit me the second time, maybe he thought someone was coming? I just managed to crawl away and grab my radio for help. I wasn't told he was dead until we were here at the hospital and they were taking me into surgery. I really don't know what made him snap, he mentioned breaking up with his girlfriend, maybe that's it?" Chris shrugged his good shoulder and tried to look confused and bewildered. He didn't want any chance of the cops not believing him.

"We might be able to know more after looking through his things and speaking to his friends. But, Mr. Halliwell, are you returning to Montana this summer?"

Chris glanced toward the door, he knew that Melinda would be pissed if he left California again. But, he also did not want to go stay at the Manor with Phoebe's girls. They meant well, but could be a little too like his aunt at times.

"I'm not sure yet what the plan is. I guess I need to talk to Dr. Drake- Derrick about my recovery plan. I will probably need PT, what do you think?

"I would have to agree with you there. You got hit in two major parts of your body, two major joints, and that's going to require a great deal of therapy. I'm sure you could stay local with your sister and be kept aware of the investigation as well."

"Yeah," Chris mused aloud. "But, I don't want Mellie to get so caught up taking care of me that she doesn't take care of the club. The early weeks are the worst weeks for a nightclub in a smaller area like this." Chris scratched the side of his nose and looked out the window, clearly consumed in his thoughts. Both he and Gavin glanced over as the door to the room opened again admitting Melinda and Dr. Drake-Derrick.

"Hello Christopher," Libby walked over and picked up his chart. "I'm glad to see that you are conscious and talking, though I will admit I'm surprised that you're doing this well so soon after surgery. Normally our patients aren't awake and talking coherently."

"I've been hurt a lot, and I knew that if I wasn't doing well sooner that Mellie was going to kick my butt." Chris laughed and looked at his sister. Melinda gave a weak smile and sat back down in her chair.

"Well, you're here for a week at least, then PT and small movements for at least a month after that. Do you have any idea where you would like to do the PT? I can call the doctor and coordinate a care plan with them." Libby flipped through the chart and prepared to write down the next steps of the care plan. She had been bluntly honest with Melinda in the hall, that despite how good he was looking now, Chris had nearly died. Libby was honestly worried that he was doing too well now, and would have a set back if he attempted to move hospitals or go too far in a car for the PT and recovery.

"Well," Chris snuck a glance at his sister and trailed off. He had no clue what to say next.

Melinda sat up straighter and gave her brother a hard glance, "You should stay here. We both know that if you go back to San Francisco you will spend half your time calming down the girls and the other half taking care of everyone but yourself. You won't be able to help yourself." She turned and looked at Libby, "He will stay here for his recovery. Who is the best doctor to help with his injuries?" Libby had told her in the hall that there was a very good doctor here in Sea Haven, Melinda had every intention of bullying her brother into staying with her.

Melinda hoped that Chris wouldn't fight her on this, the "little girls" as they called their cousins weren't actually that much younger than her, but acted that way. They also loved to have their "big brother" do anything from changing lightbulbs and picking them up from bad dates to demon hunting with them. Melinda was determined to have Chris take a break and heal completely, they didn't have the luxury of calling a full whitelighter to come take care of him.

Libby smiled and pulled a business card out her jacket pocket. "This is my niece, Madison Drake, she does quite a bit with traumatic injuries. Or, if you want another name that I am not related to, I can look up some others." Libby passed Melinda the business card and tried to ignore her fidgety nephew.

"I can bring her by later so she can met you Christopher, and we can see how you both get along. The doctor patient relationship when it comes to PT needs to be a good one."

"I would appreciate that," Chris said gratefully. "I want to be able to jump next year and that will all be dependent on how my injuries heal." Chris smiled at Dr. Drake- Derrick and ignored the glare that Melinda was giving him. "How do my injuries look Doctor? I haven't been told anything yet."

Libby began to speak and noticed that Gavin was slowly inching his way to the door, studiously avoiding looking at anyone in the room. "Gavin, is there anywhere that you need to be?"

He froze in mid-step, "I was, uh, I am needed to… I'm going back to the station to update Uncle Jonas about the case and see what else to he needs me to do. I've got a lot to catch up on since I've been gone so long."

"Well, ok go on then. I'll see you at the family dinner tomorrow?" Libby turned back to her patient and dismissed him from her mind.

"Of course Aunt Libby. Have a good day everyone," Gavin waved in a half-hearted gesture and escaped.

He threw himself into his patrol car and gunned it out of the hospital lot, his one thought that he desperately needed to get home. He had been raised hearing all the stories of how his father and uncles found their soul mates, and while they had all ended happy there had been many bumps to get there. He was also scared to the bone that he had no idea who this girl was, all he knew was that once his eyes had met hers his palm had started itching.

Gavin sped down the coast road and parked in the wide lot in front of his parents' massive house. It had needed the 8 bedrooms to contain the 7 boys that had all grown up there. He glanced over and could just see the spires of Libby and Tyson's cliff house as well. Gavin signed and started up the walk to the front door. He had been raised surrounded by family and knowing that one day he would take the reins as the 7th son of the 7th son, and have 7 sons of his own, but he wasn't sure he was ready to do it now.

His footsteps echoed on the stone in the entry way as he walked through the house looking for his dad. He could faintly hear a guitar playing from the master bedroom and turned that way knowing his mother would know where his dad was.

He tapped on the partially open door and peeked in. Joley Drake Prakenskii was still a beautiful woman. Her hair was back to its natural blonde again, and her dark eyes were narrowed in concentration as she scribbled lyrics onto a pad set on the settee in front of her. She had been a multi-platinum recording artist since before any of his brothers had been born and had continued with the music industry after they had been born. If he had been asked Gavin would not have been able to separate his childhood from hearing his mother play and sing music. It was part of what made Joley, well Joley.

"Ma?" Gavin waited until she had stopped writing and looked over to him. Joley was also famous in the family for getting sucked in to writing her music and not noticing if someone was talking to her.

Her warm brown eyes sparkled as she saw her youngest son standing in the doorway. "Hey baby, what's going on? Aren't you on shift?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to Dad. Any idea where he is?" Gavin shifted his feet a little as his mom's eyes narrowed and she focused on him more intently.

"He's in the workout room, apparently Alexei was able to take his weapon from him recently and Ilya thinks that he needs more practice." Joley rolled her eyes as she set her guitar to the side and rose to her feet. "I'll walk up with you, I wanted to see what he wants to do for dinner anyway."

"Don't worry about that Ma, I'll ask him for you," Gavin quickly stepped into the doorway and blocked his mother's way. "It's a dude thing that I want to talk to him about, and well it's awkward."

"Gavin Maxim Prakenskii, what is going on here? You don't have 'dude things', and I was right there when your father gave you the sex talk. What in the world could possibly be more awkward to talk to him about?"

Gavin opened and closed his mouth a few times, and without thinking started rubbing at his left palm, right where it was itching when he thought of Melinda.

Gavin realized that he had blown it, when he saw his mother's eyes track down to his hands and her own fingers curl into her left palm. "I see," Joley said slowly. "Yes, I think that is a conversation that you and your father should have alone. It is always an intense time when you meet 'that girl' as your father and uncles can tell you." Joley waited until her son had walked away and sank down onto the settee that was behind her. She could easily remember when Ilya had first marked her palm.

They hadn't even been introduced really, and she had been mad at him when she sent power at his back to make him trip and instead he rebounded it to her. It was the first time any of them had been a man that had psychic gifts like her family had, and she had been terrified of him. Joley tried to think of who her son could have met today that could be the girl and faintly wished her luck. Whoever this girl was, she was going to need it.

Gavin walked to the gym at the back of the house. He was never quite sure what he dad had been and done before his parents had met, but he knew it was dangerous. As kids, no matter how quiet they had been or how much they had planned, they had never been able to sneak up on their dad or sneak anything by him.

He stepped into the room and saw his dad, who had to be approaching 60, pounding away on the heavy bag. Gavin walked further in and waited until his dad saw him, Ilya nodded at his son and dropped his arms breathing heavily. Gavin reached into the mini-fridge that was tucked into the wall and pulled out a bottle of water.  
Tossing it to his dad, Gavin settled on the bench of the bench press and waited for his dad to take a drink and wipe his face.

Without much preamble Gavin decided to just launch into it. "I'm pretty sure I've found her."

Ilya froze for a moment and decided to sit like his son was, facing him dead on.

"That is a very big statement Gavin. Your soul mate is destined to be the next mother to the 7 sons of the Prakenskii family, that's not a responsibility to be taken lightly." Ilya rubbed more sweat from his face and drank a little more water to stall for time. "There's also the fact that our family has psychic gifts, that all of your sons will have them. Do you know this girl? How are you going to explain all this to her?"

Gavin looked at his dad and Ilya could almost see the stress and anxiety coming off him in waves. "I have no idea who she really is. I saw her at the hospital when I went to interview her brother and just knew." He pushed his hand through his hair in agitation, "How am I supposed to explain magic to a simple bar owner?"

* * *

Melinda swung into _Speakeasy to Me_ and found Primrose sitting behind the bar flipping through the to-do list that Melinda had left behind.

"Hey," Melinda smiled at her cousin and walked up to her. They exchanged a long hug and sat down together.

"So, how is Christopher Robin?" Prim asked. She polished the bar glasses that were stacked at the end of the bar as they caught up on the last few days.

"Are we the only ones here?" Melinda asked, craning her neck to see the kitchen. She wanted to tell Prim everything that Chris had divulged once the doctors had left, but she also didn't want Camille to overhear.

"Yeah, why? Oh lord, it wasn't just a random attack was it?" Primrose put down the polishing rag and faced Melinda fully. "I just couldn't take the coincidence that a Halliwell was just randomly attacked by a randomly turned crazy person, who then just happened to die before anyone else could talk to him."

Melinda sighed and pushed a hand through her hair, "Yeah you're right. Chris says the guy had been taken by a Possessor Demon, a demon that claimed to have killed my mother." Melinda looked away from Primrose as the tears sprang back to her eyes again. She had sobbed when Chris had told her the entire taunt that the demon had leveled at him. It had been two days since he had told her and her mind was still reeling with the possible ramifications of it.

"The demon could be lying, Mellie. It wouldn't be the first time that a demon had claimed to be the one responsible for killing your mom." Primrose bit her lip and tried to think of what else she could say to her cousin.

Primrose knew that, despite what her mom and Aunt Paige had said immediately following Aunt Piper's death, Melinda and Chris blamed themselves for her death. Aunt Piper had been at home baking for Chris's birthday when she had been attacked by a demon, or possibly two, and when Chris and Melinda had come home from school Aunt Piper had been bleeding out on the kitchen floor. Chris and Melinda had both not yet been able to heal, and Leo for an unknown reason had not responded to their cries for help. In the end, Aunt Piper had died in Chris's arms with Melinda's screams echoing through the house. Wyatt had been on a class trip to the Grand Canyon and, per Aunt Piper's Rules, forbidden to come home via magic and therefore put his siblings on mute until he got back.

Any mention of the demon attack, or even Aunt Piper on a bad day, was liable to set Melinda to crying and Christopher off to sit on a bridge somewhere.

So Primrose took a deep breath before she continued speaking, "I just don't want either of you to react before we have time to research this and really think about it."

Melinda nodded and took a deep breath, Primrose was grateful to see that she wasn't crying. "I know. Chris and I talked before I left the hospital yesterday, and we decided to look the Book and make sure that there is no chance that it couldn't be true before we decide to act on it. But, we also don't know whether or not the demon survived the fire and we need to investigate that too. And, add in the fact that Chris is still so hurt and can't even get out of bed yet, so we can't act quickly anyways."

Melinda glanced around the club and tried to remind herself of the joy that she had felt just a few days ago when she had walked in. This was still her place, one demon attack was not going to change her mind or make her want to leave.

"If you need to get back to San Francisco and P3 I can take over from here, Prim." Melinda secretly hoped that Primrose would do just that, she needed some space to breathe before Chris got out of the hospital and moved in with her.

"I'm going to head back in a few days, Pepper is heading up here with Chris's clothes and some of his personal things that he didn't take to Montana. We will go home together," Primrose responded.

"Who is going to watch the club while Pepper is here?" Melinda questioned. She had been surprised that Primrose had allowed Pepper to take the reins while she had left to begin with. Pepper worked with their Uncle Coop at the matchmaking business and wasn't well known as the business centered mind.

"Oh," Primrose exclaimed, and started laughing. "No, Peppy was never watching the club for me! Oh lord, we would come back and she would have matched up all the waitstaff and bartenders with their soul mates, but the club would be closed or failing. HJ agreed to watch the club for me in exchange for me helping him with his detective's exam."

Melinda frowned and got up to walk around the bar. She held up a bottle of Jameson and some ginger ale and mixed two drinks at Primrose's nod. "I didn't realize that HJ was already able to take the detective's exam."

She placed the glass by Primrose and leaned against the bar as she swirled her drink. "Sometimes, I wonder what our moms and grandma, Grams would have thought of all of us. I mean, take a look at the current Halliwells. Wyatt is saving orphans and building wells or something in Africa, Chris is a fireman, we run bars, HJ is a policeman, the twins are in school getting master's degrees in social services, Pepper and Poppy are working in the wedding business. We are so stinking normal, I feel like all other Halliwells wouldn't believe it! We managed the normal, right?"

"Well," Primrose took a long sip of her drink and leaned back on her stool. She then reached over for the salt shaker and threw some over her shoulder, then knocked on the wood of the bar. "I feel like the other shoe is waiting to drop. We did just have a long conversation about a demon hunting the family, after all. But, yeah. We did manage to achieve what our parents wanted; career and lives that were not dictated by magic."

Melinda smiled and raised her glass to her cousin. "Amen to that, but I think we all know that magic will not leave the Halliwells far behind."

They both smiled and sat for some time debating various new bands that had sent in music and wanted to play at either club. Camille came in as they were listening to one band on the boombox.  
"I don't know," Melinda was saying. She had her head cocked to one side as she tried to figure out the lyrics. "Drunk people already have issues understanding lyrics, this is going to be just too confusing."

Primrose wrinkled her nose and nodded, "They also can't promise to have a full set ready, so maybe as a warm-up band for a more popular group. But, for sure a weekday group. They are not strong enough for a weekend crowd."

"So this pile?" Melinda tossed the CD to the bigger of the two piles and smiled as Camille came over. "Hey, thanks for helping Primrose hold down the fort for the last few days. I had to set up my crafting room as a bedroom for Chris since he won't be able to get up the stairs at first."

"It's no problem," Camille said as she settled onto a bar stool. "Looking at new bands? That's how my aunt got started in the beginning of her music career."

"Joley Drake got started playing in bars?" Melinda asked skeptically.

"Wait, THE Joley Drake is your aunt?" Primrose interrupted, her face shining with excitement. "She is my favorite artist, I have all of her music and I've been to so many of her concerts!"

Camille laughed, "I had a feeling that one of you would be a fan. There's always at least one in a room. Anyway, how is Chris?"

"He's good," Melinda said. "Still in a lot of pain and it will take a lot of time to heal. Actually, your sister is going to be his PT when he's released from the hospital. He's not a good patient, you might want to warn her." Melinda laughed and pushed her hair out of her face. She hadn't been there when Chris had met with Madison Drake, but she had a feeling that Madison was not going to let Chris push her around.

"Maddie is a great doctor, she will have him on his feet in no time."

They all turned as there was a knock on the door and looked over to see Gavin come in.

"Hey, just wanted to check up on you ladies." Gavin awkwardly cleared his throat and ran his hand over his hair. He looked to Camille, and she nodded and grabbed her purse.

"Well," she said, "I'm going to head back to the kitchen and start prep. Primrose, can you come help me?"

Primrose gave her a weird look, but nodded when Camille gave a significant look to Gavin and then slid it over to Melinda. "Sure, I can wash and chop like a champ."

They both walked back to the kitchen and left Gavin and Melinda alone in the club.

* * *

Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the long delay in updating! I hope that everyone enjoys the next stage of this story. And please, REVIEW!

* * *

Melinda turned to the CDs that were littering the bar and began to neaten the stacks into some form of order. She had a feeling that Gavin had come to talk to her, but she wasn't in the mood to talk about Chris's case anymore.

"Is there something new with Chris's case?" Melinda asked, as she slipped the CDs back into her bag.

"Oh, no there isn't anything new. I just wanted to, uh… say hi." Gavin cleared his throat awkwardly, he was normally smoother with the ladies. He blamed the pep talk that his brothers had given him before he left the house that morning. He knew that everyone was depending on him meeting the right girl and her falling for him, the future of the family line hung in the balance.

"Oh, well… Hi." Melinda frowned at him with a quizzical expression and began cleaning the glasses that Prim and her had been drinking out of. She wanted to get the bar set up for the evening so she could deal with the band and everything. She wasn't sure what to make of the younger brother of the Prakenskiis, his brothers had always been so nice and welcoming to her, but his behavior at the hospital had been strange.

Gavin hurried to fill the awkward silence that had descended on them. "I realized when I met you at the hospital that most of my family has met you, but I haven't gotten a chance yet. " Gavin walked over to the bar and sat down on one of the stools. He never drank, your senses being dulled could get you killed, but he wanted to appear friendly.

"So," he said. "What caused you to want to own a bar? You don't see very many women that are bar owners."

Melinda frowned a little as she continued to straighten up the bar, but manners drove her to answer his questions. "My mother owned a bar when I was a child." She pointed over her shoulder at the picture of her family at P3. Gavin studied the small family smiling back at him from the frame, he wondered silently where her father was and why she didn't have a more recent picture.

"I would go to work with her when I was younger, listen to her talk to the bands and the bartenders and knew that I wanted to be just like her." Melinda swallowed hard and blindly reached for another glass to polish. Gavin frowned and pushed upright on his stool, he remembered vaguely that his aunt had mentioned something happened to her mother.

"She died when I was in middle school, so this is a homage to her as well. The family bar in San Francisco will always be her place, and I wanted to open my own. Sea Haven hasn't had a successful bar open in the last 5 or so years and I wanted the challenge of making it work."

Melinda raised her head and again scanned the empty tables and booths, her resolve to not let this demon ruin her life strengthened. She was not giving up on her club, and she was not giving up on her mother's dream that they have normal lives. She turned her gaze back to Gavin and was surprised to see that he was looking at her quite intently.

"I didn't mean to bring up painful memories," he said quietly. The nervous man that had been at the hospital and walked in to the bar seemed to be gone. Instead, an intense man was in his place closely studying her face.

"It's ok," she said. Melinda looked at Gavin in a new light. He seemed bigger, more powerful in that moment and she couldn't figure out what was going on. It was almost like how Wyatt could seem when he was being all Twice-Blessed on people.

She continued her thought, "You didn't know that she was dead when you asked. I'm trying to be better about talking about mom anyway, she's been gone over 10 years."

"No, I remembered after I asked that my aunt Libby had mentioned that she was gone. Sometimes, with so much family I can't keep all the conversations straight anymore. It can be exhausting."

Melinda smiled at that, she knew that she had a much smaller family than Gavin did, but she could easily imagine that if she was overwhelmed by 6 cousins he had to be going crazy. "Really, it's fine that you asked. How large is your family anyway? I know you have 6 older brothers and that Camille is part of 7 girls."

"Well, how much time do you have?" Gavin joked, he smiled as Melinda laughed and shrugged. "You're right, I have 6 older brothers, and my dad is also one of 7 boys. My mom is one of 7 girls, it's her younger sister that is Camille's mother. All of my aunts and uncles have at least 3 children. So 12 other couples later, it's just a lot of people. I'm closest to my aunt Elle's girls, since they actually understand what it was like to grow up in a house of 6 other kids." And Gavin thought, his cousin Shannon was also destined to have 7 girls and intimately understood the pressure that he faced from his family. Though, he thought, he wasn't going to let any man take his little cousin off. He was going to have to prove himself.

Melinda shook her head as she thought over the idea of having that many children in one family. "I always thought that the Halliwell's had it rough, and I only have 6 cousins and 2 brothers. My family just doesn't do the big family thing." Melinda also wondered if the demon hunting and early deaths of women had impacted the want of large families, mothers didn't want to leave behind their children. She resolutely turned her thoughts away from that, she didn't want to ruin a perfectly good conversation thinking about that. "But," Melinda tilted her head as she thought about it. "We did basically all grow up in the same house. Especially, after my mom died my aunts basically moved their families in."

"How big was your house that two other families could move in?" Gavin asked. His parents had deliberately picked a house with 7 bedrooms for the reason that they didn't want any of the boys to share. He couldn't imagine having to share his room with one of his brothers, they all had powerful psychic gifts and their fights in just the living room could rock the house.

"Not that big," Melinda laughed. "The boys moved into our basement, and I shared a room with two of my cousins. The other room was for Phoebe's three girls and the aunts shared the last bedroom. We didn't all sleep there every night, but when all the Halliwells were in it got tight." She moved out from behind the bar and started to flip chairs off the tables to ready for the night. She looked up in appreciation when Gavin started to help her, she was already behind since she had dawdled talking to him.

"The boys had to sleep in the basement? Why not just move to a bigger house?" Gavin frowned to himself as he thought about it, it didn't make sense to him that children had been put in the basement.

"Oh, the house has been in the family for 100 years. The oldest daughter has always lived there with her family. There wasn't even a thought of giving the house up. We just made it work. Hasn't Camille's house been in the family for a long time? She mentioned that her mother grew up there too."

Gavin paused with a chair in his hands and looked at Melinda for a moment before he answered. She was simply stunning to him. She had bundled her hair up on top of her head while she worked, revealing the simple curve of her neck and making her eyes appear even larger. His palm started to itch again and he almost set the chair down and grabbed her hand before he caught himself.

"Uh, yes. Sorry, I spaced a little thinking about something. Yeah, the Drake house has been in the family for a long time. It is always passed to the last daughter, so one day it will be Shannon's house. Have you met her?"

Melinda screwed up her face as she tried to remember. "Maybe? Camille has so many sisters and cousins that I can't keep track of all of them yet. I have met Madison, she is going to be Chris's physical therapist."

"Maddie is a great PT, he's going to be back on his feet in no time." Gavin set the last chair down and glanced around to see if there was anything he could do.

"So, Melinda. I was wondering if I could take you out to dinner? Get to know you better." Gavin looked over at her, and was a little surprised that she looked so shocked.

"Uh, I… well. Um, no. I don't date, uh… the club needs a lot of work, and now with Chris hurt. I just… I don't have the time! Yes, I don't have the time to date. Sorry." Melinda nervously rambled on, shoving her hand into her hair and taking a few steps away from Gavin. Panic was flooding through her body, why oh why did he have to ask her out? Why couldn't he have just left it at a nice conversation between people that have a lot of friends in common and just gone away?

"Uh, I have to go talk to my cousin," she continued to stammer. "You can just see yourself out." Melinda all but ran to the kitchen and threw herself through the door.

Gavin stood in the bar area for a little longer with a puzzled look, he had never actually had that reaction to his asking a girl out on a date. He was more determined than ever to get to know her more, and to enlist all the family necessary to figure out why she was so skittish.

Gavin walked to the door and pulled his phone out as he walked, he sent a family meeting text to his brothers and cousins. Giving one more thoughtful look at the kitchen door, he walked out the door as he called his cousin Madison. Based on his memory, she had her first session with Christopher today.

* * *

Melinda slammed the kitchen door behind her and stared at her cousin, she vaguely noticed Camille come to an abrupt halt behind the stove.

"He asked me out!" She said breathlessly to her cousin.

"Oh dear, how fast did you run?" Primrose asked, slightly teasing but mostly serious.

"Well, it was just out of nowhere! I don't date! You know that! Oh, God... What if he asks again?" Melinda grabbed her cousin by the arms and stared at her.

"Mellie, you have got to get over this fear of dating someone. It's bound to happen that a nice young man would want to take you out!" Primrose gently pried Melinda's hands off her arms and took Melinda's face between her hands. "You deserve to be loved, and you deserve to love someone."

"It's showing right now that you are your father's daughter." Melinda stepped away from her cousin and frowned, looking off into the back of the kitchen. Neither cousin seemed to remember that Camille stood by the stove.

Melinda's mouth twisted as she attempted to repress her emotions, but a tear still managed to slip from one eye. "My father would not agree with you about love. He would state that love is foolish and only brings heartbreak." Melinda quickly dashed away the tear that had escaped and turned back to her cousin.

"Mellie…"

"No, I don't want to talk about it anymore." She turned desperately and searched for any other topic that she could bring up. "Camille, what's the plan for food tonight?"

"Uh," caught clearly eavesdropping, Camille scrambled for a minute. "Well, the nachos have seemed to be very popular, and chicken wings."

"Can't go wrong with cheese on everything." Primrose tossed in, a quick attempt at a smile briefly brightening her face.

"Yes, exactly. So those and some spring rolls. I might start adding more unique things to the menu in the next couple of weekends and seeing what is popular and what falls flat. We should think of adding more seafood since we are on the ocean, and my family has connections to the large farm outside of the city."

"Wait, the fortress with the guards and fences?" Melinda interrupted. She had driven by many times before, you couldn't see through most of the fences. She knew an entire family lived out there, and several owned businesses in town as well.

"Yes, my mother's cousin lives there and is basically family to everyone there. One of her "sisters" works for the government so they added a lot of security to the farm. But, it is a working farm and they are well known for the fresh produce they have. We could start adding that to the menu and promote that we have local food and everything." Camille pulled a list of menu items that she had drawn up as ideas, and passed it across the table to Melinda.

"Would it be more expensive or about the same as what we are spending now?" Melinda looked down at the list and an eyebrow shot up. As much as Camille talked nachos and chicken wings, this was a little more expansive.

"Well, the ingredients could vary based on season and everything, but…" Camille trailed off as she saw Melinda's face.

"Camille, this menu is more than a bar would offer. This looks a lot more like a restaurant. We aren't coded as a restaurant, or have the kitchen space."

"What about tapas? Small plates early in the evening, before the music and dancing starts! Sea Haven doesn't have anything like that. And I really think, from my own experiences and what my family has said, we could use a young, trendy place for dates and hanging out." Enthusiasm was obvious in Camille's voice, and lit up her face. Melinda was all for this new idea, until the word date.

The word took her back to the panicked feeling that had swamped her when Gavin had asked her out. "Let me think about it, we have just barely opened and I don't want to push this place on people. Let's just get the first couple of months off the ground and see where it takes us," Melinda said. She placed the list back on the counter and turned the leave.

"I'm going to clean up the bar area and call tonight's band. I also want to try and run home to see Chris after his therapy appointment before we open. I'll be out here if you need me." Melinda walked back out of the kitchen.

A stiff silence was left in her wake between Primrose and Camille.

Camille paused as she thought of what to say. She hadn't checked her phone since Melinda had come into the kitchen, but she had seen it lighting up constantly with texts from the family. She had an idea that Gavin was going to call a family meeting about Melinda so strongly turning down a date, but she wasn't sure if she should talk to Primrose about it.

She decided to take a course of action that she hoped didn't backfire on her. "Primrose, I know my cousin, and I know that he isn't going to back down quickly if he's really interested in Melinda. But, has something happened to her that maybe he should know? He wouldn't want to make her feel scared or uncomfortable." Camille looked at Primrose and was surprised that Prim seemed to be deep in thought of how to answer.

Primrose was torn between family loyalty and her Cupid instincts. She knew that Melinda and Chris could be irrational about dating, but she also knew that Melinda had never fully shared what had happened between them and their father the day of Piper's funeral. She nibbled on the side of her thumbnail and debated, she could see from Camille's face that she was perfectly earnest. And a quick use of her empathy gift told her that there was no malice hidden behind the worried expression.

"Melinda and Chris had a rough childhood with relationships, their parents had an awful style of on-again off-again marriage. They would be together at one point, then fight and Leo would leave for months at a time. He was furious when she died though, and took it out on them. I don't think anything has ever really happened with a boyfriend, but then she hasn't ever really had one." Primrose paused and leaned on the counter, "Melinda has protected herself from being hurt like her mother was. She has the bar, her family, her plants, and her baking. None of those things could hurt her, but also she won't ever really be happy and fulfilled when she hides like that," Primrose said.

Camille nodded and tucked all that away, she couldn't imagine her father walking out on her mother. Jackson Deveau- Drake had fought for life and love, and he wouldn't give that up, or his seven daughters for anything.

"Thank you Primrose, I know that it can't be easy to share that with, basically, a stranger," Camille said.

Primrose nodded and headed for the door herself to help Melinda, "As I said, she deserves love."

* * *

Madison paused outside the small cottage that Melinda Halliwell had purchased when she moved to Sea Haven. It was quite a small house, but had two levels and a very large garden. Madison looked over some of the plants that grew riotously over the yard and up trellises that were placed throughout the garden. She recognized poppies, primroses, comfrey, thistle, and other flowers and herbs. There were also benches and statues placed every so often within the paths. Madison noted that there were also hunks of crystals placed every so often, and noted that she recognized some her family used for protection potions and spells. She assumed the Melinda used them for the look.

It looked toward the back that Melinda had planted a vegetable garden, Madison could recognize the pepper vines and tomato stalks growing. She was a little surprised that this late in the summer that Melinda still had so much growing. Her family estate had a year-round garden, but it was family knowledge that it was more from the family gifts than any special gardening skills they had.

She threaded her way through the waving flowers, stopping every so often for second to smell the blooms. She wondered if the primroses were planted for the cousin Primrose, and if anything else in the garden stood for a family member.

Madison made it to the stoop and braced herself before ringing the bell, Gavin had called her on the way over and asked her to gather more information on the Halliwells. She was torn between wanting to help him find the girl for him, and not wanting to breach a patient's privacy.

* * *

Chris cursed as he tried to lever himself off the couch at the knock on the door and couldn't quite manage it.

"Come in!" he shouted toward the front hall. Melinda had told him that Sea Haven was a quiet town, and he couldn't imagine a burglar knocking and then coming in. Anyways, if it was someone with bad intentions did come in, he could just use his magic to knock them out.

A petite young woman with blazing red hair and green eyes stepped into the room, she was carrying a large bag and a medical file. She was also dressed in loose comfortable clothing and sneakers. He assumed that this was the physical therapist that Melinda had set up for him. He tried to get up again, but with one leg in a split, and not being able to use a cane since the opposite arm was also in a sling he mostly failed.

"Don't get up!" She cried running over and pushing him gently back onto the couch. Madison quickly looked over the room, clearly Melinda Halliwell had tried to make it as easy as possible for her brother to rest and recover. She had moved the large cushions off the back of the sofa to make it bigger for him, left the TV remote, food and tea on the coffee table. There were also books, magazines, and not just his phone, but also the charger already plugged into the wall. The room itself, while a little smaller was quite cozy and warm. Family photos were scattered everywhere, a small upright piano was under the picture window looking over the garden, and there were quilts laying over the backs of chairs and the sofa. It wasn't the house of a bar owner that Madison had imagined.

Madison frowned and looked at the pale young man that was laying back on the sofa, the pain of trying to get up had taken the flush from his face and set his mouth into a grim line. "Ok, I have to ask. How are you getting to the bathroom?"

"When it gets to the point I can't ignore it, I use the side of the couch and work myself up and brace on the walls to the downstairs bath. Melinda helped me over before she left for work, and she said she would be back before she opens and I'll go then too." Chris scratched his head and wondered if that had made sense. The real answer of, he orbed himself to the bathroom wasn't going to be the answer that he gave the mortal therapist.

"Well, that sounds a little dangerous. We might rig something to help you lever up and then rails or something so you don't fall down as you walk. We want to make sure that we aren't doing anything to over stretch muscles or pull your stitches out. To start, we just want to keep you moving and then as the wounds are healed, we want to get full range of movement back if we can," Madison said. She pulled his files on his injuries out and her plan of care out.

She eased herself down onto the couch next to him and they spent a solid hour going over the old injuries that he had, the new ones from the attack and what he was already able to do and what he needed to be able to do as a firefighter.

Madison sat back and rolled her shoulders, hunching over the notepad had set up an ache right in between her shoulder blades. Without thinking, Chris reached over with his good hand and pressed on the spot that hurt. He managed to hit right where it was bothering her and got it massaged out in a minute. She glanced over at him, and the look that passed between them seemed to hold something. Chris yanked his hand away as if it was burned, "Sorry, I didn't mean to just grab you." He rubbed his neck and looked away.

"It's fine," Madison said. She felt heat climbing up her neck and into her cheeks. "Um, do you need to go to the bathroom or anything? We don't need to start working on the actual physical therapy just yet, and I would want you to come to the clinic where we have the equipment anyway." She stood and brushed at her pants awkwardly, trying not to make eye contact with him.

Chris cleared his throat, "Uh, yes that would be nice."

Madison pulled him up and helped walk him down the hall. As she let him have privacy in the bathroom, she wandered the living room a little more. Madison found herself smiling over the photos of Melinda and Chris at various stages, she didn't know who to the tall, blonde man was in many photos. There was a little resemblance around the mouth and nose, but his coloring was totally different. Camille had mentioned that there were a lot of cousins, so maybe this man was a cousin. But she could also count 5 other young women and a young man in a police uniform, so she wasn't all that sure.

She turned when she heard Chris coming back down the hall and hurried down to help him sit down again. "Um, I was looking at the pictures and I have a question. Who are the young people in all the pictures? I know that my sister has mentioned you have cousins."

"Oh, yeah. Pass me the picture that is sitting on the top of the piano. It has all of us and it's the most recent," Chris said. He held out his hand and took the frame, scooting over on the couch so Madison could sit down and see the people in the frame.

"Here, let's start at the top." He pointed at the young blonde man that Madison had noticed, "This is my older brother Wyatt. He's actually working in Africa right now, Somalia more specifically, building wells and helping villages modernize. The party this was taken at was his bon voyage. Next to him is Melinda and then myself. Sitting on the couch as a group are my Aunt Phoebe's daughters; Primrose is here now, and then it's Poppy and Pepper. They all have dark hair and darker brown eyes. Next to them standing, with the sandy hair and light brown eyes is my cousin Henry Jr or HJ." Madison nodded the description, it was the police officer from the other pictures. "HJ is my Aunt Paige's son, and the two girls with the light brown hair and brown eyes that look a great deal alike are his sisters, the twins, Patsy and Penny." Chris stopped for a minute and smiled as he looked down at his family.

"Wyatt is the oldest and Poppy is the youngest. We are all really close in age though because it's only about 10 years that separate them." He set the frame down on the side table and smiled once more before turning to Madison again.

"Are any of you married or anything? My sisters and cousins are all starting to settle down, it's getting to family parties are close to over 100 people." Madison tossed her braid behind her, she hoped this would get her some information for Gavin.

Chris seemed to pause and look out the window for a long moment before answering. "Ah, no. Actually it's weird that none of us are married or getting close to it. My uncle even runs a match-making and wedding business. Wyatt's still pretty wrapped up in his career and saving the world, and I guess the same for Melinda and me too. The others are younger, and HJ knows you have to pick someone who can handle dating a police officer. Anyways," he scratched the side of his nose and glanced at her, "Is there anything else that we need to talk about?"

"Ah, no," Madison stood and started to gather all her files and notes. "I'll call you with any appointment times I have, I know that you're going to need Melinda to drive you for a while. Let me know what works best and we can go from there."

Chris smiled, "Mellie's driving might kill me before we make to therapy, but I'll talk to her about her schedule."

"Ok, well I'll see you later then," Madison said. She smiled and left the cottage. She glanced back one more time at the cottage and the man that lived inside and therefore missed that the fairy statue right inside the gate glowed softly as she left.

Madison pulled out her phone, she had nearly 100 unread messages from the group they all had as cousins.

The first one from Gavin stated:

 **Family Meeting, My house at 8am tomorrow.**

The rest were mostly the other cousins whining about the early meeting time and wanting to know why the meeting was happening. It was the last one from Camille that made Madison pause and think as she read it

 **Melinda is going to be harder to win over than you think, we all need to talk.**


	5. Chapter 5

Here is the next update in the story! Please review!

* * *

Gavin came down the stairs of his family home at a fast pace. He still lived there, wanting to save as much money as possible for his own house with his wife. He slowed as he walked past the family photos on the walls. They were mostly his brothers and him, his father had no pictures from his childhood or before he met his mother. There were a few of his father standing with his six uncles, but they were all adults. Gavin had pondered that fact a few times, no one in this day and age grew up with zero photos, but he had never wondered enough to ask his dad about it. The stairs opened into the front entry and he could already hear his brothers grouching about the early hour.

He had called the family meeting early so that no one would have an excuse to miss it, he wanted to make sure that he had everyone's opinions. Gavin was aware that getting 14 adults in a room could be tricky. His parent has offered to attend, but he wanted to start off with just his brothers and cousins. This was a new generation issue, and he wanted to prove to everyone that he could handle the responsibility of finding his woman.

The living room was the perfect place to have the meeting, there were several couches and easy chairs. The durable fabrics of his childhood and turned into sink-into-me leather after he turned 16, and the beige carpet over the wood floors had been replaced with beautiful hand-woven rugs. Joley had famously declared that she could once again have nice things now that there were no more children in the house. More pictures of family, the beach, and the town were scattered among the books and trinkets of his parents' travels. Her gold and platinum album covers were kept in the studio in the back of the house, but they had hung pictures from her concerts and award ceremonies here. His mother's decree of no television except in the family room meant this was where they always gathered and spent time together.

As he turned into the living room he saw all his brothers spread out on the couches drinking tea, and the feeling of family and love swamped him. This is what he was destined to have, seven sons that would pass on the family gift and the family burden. This is why he was so determined to figure out what was going on with Melinda, he needed to break her shell so they could have this together. He heard the door open and saw his Drake cousins come in. The girls had been the ones doing most of the personal digging so he wanted their opinion on what course of action to take next.

Gavin smiled and hugged them as they came in, Madison stopped in front of him.

"I talked to Chris like you asked, but I going to say it made me a little uncomfortable. He is a patient of mine, I shouldn't be using him like this." She shrugged a little and frowned, as much as she used her gift with her patients, she wasn't used to basically spying on them.

"I'm sorry Mads," Gavin said. He gave her another hug, "But, I really need to know what was going on with this family. She is my destined soul mate, anything we find out is just for that."

"I know, I just want to finish this part so that I can just be his doctor." Madison walked to one of the couches and smiled as Alexi, the eldest Prakenskii brother, handed her a cup of tea. Madison made sure that she kept a lock on her emotions, she didn't want anyone catching on to the fact that she was slowly developing feelings for Chris. It was private and if he wasn't her destined partner it was all doomed for failure. The family was already so wrapped up in helping Gavin she also didn't want to take any attention away from him.

All talk ceased and all eyes shifted to Gavin as he came in the room. While Alexi was the oldest of the boys and Adeline the oldest of the girls, it was the two youngest, Gavin and Shannon, that were the most powerful and the most important to the family. Gavin sat down in the wingchair that was closest to the fireplace, and linked his hands between his legs.

"I called a family meeting for a very important reason. As most of you know, I met the girl that is destined to be the next mother of the seven. But, for some reason she doesn't seem to experience the pull that we are all told about and she is very reluctant to spend any kind of time with me. When I mentioned a date, she panicked and ran from the room." Gavin dragged a hand through his hair and continued. "I don't want to spook her more, but we need to figure out what is going on. Our family's future and legacy depend on it." He stopped and looked at each of his brothers, they all nodded their support. Nothing would stop them in the quest to figure out what was going on.

Camille cleared her throat. "I spoke with Melinda and her cousin Primrose after Gavin asked her out. She was completely panicked, he has that right." She shot him a quick supporting smile. "Primrose was also not surprised that she panicked. Prim told me, after Melinda had left, that her mother and father had a bad relationship. She called it an 'on-again off-again marriage' and left me with the impression that Melinda thinks she's doomed to repeat her parents' mistakes. Add in the fact that her mother died and her father, I think from what Primrose shared, blamed her and Chris, and you have a mess." She picked up her tea and sipped at it while thinking.

Camille straightened a little on the couch and leaned forward toward Gavin. "I used my gift to see if she was lying or not and she was being completely sincere and honest. There was nothing untrue in what she told me. Primrose also said that Melinda deserves love and I think she could be an ally in this."

"Thank you Camille, help us by keeping an eye on her at work, yeah?" Gavin turned after Camille smiled and nodded and looked toward Madison. "Ok Mads, you're up."

"Well, I didn't get that much from Chris. We spent the majority of the time talking about his injuries and the physical therapy that he needs. But while he was in the bathroom right before I left, I looked around the living room of Melinda's house. I got him to talk about his family using a photograph. None of them are married or even dating seriously and his uncle even owns a matchmaking business. Chris put it down to work, and older brother Wyatt is currently living in Africa doing good-will missions, but it's still odd."

Madison turned her tea cup in her hands and wondered how to bring up the next bit. "I try to do some healing of every patient I work with, especially those that are the worst injured. The only thing is, when I send out the healing energy it bounces off Chris and comes back to me. I even got a little jolt the one and only time I tried it and I can't figure out why." She turned and looked at her family, "Has that happened to anyone else?"

A small gasp had gone up when she had mentioned the healing energy was blocked. Madison was the strongest healer in the family, even stronger than Shannon. It was widely believed that she could save someone's life even if a doctor with the greatest technology was unable to. They had never encountered in their lives someone that had been unable to be healed at all.

Several of the cousins frowned, but Adeline spoke first. She pulled a piece of her blond hair over her shoulder and played with it as she thought out loud. "What was his reaction? Did he realize that you tried to heal him?"

Madison frowned and bit her lip as she thought back to when she had been helping him down the hall. "I don't think he noticed at all. I was helping him walk to the bathroom and he might have dismissed any heat or pain as part of trying to move. Obviously, I wasn't going to ask him." Madison frowned at her sister, they had been drilled not to let anyone know what they could do. The healing ability in particular tended to draw the crazies out of hiding.

"No, no obviously you couldn't ask him. But from the family diaries there are only two reasons that are given for someone being able to block a healer's touch. One is personal barriers, the same kind that block empathy and telepathy or a curse." Addie ticked them off her fingers while she spoke. She turned to Alexi, "Does your family have any other reason that could block healing energy?"

"None other than the ones that you already listed. But, let's be serious about this. Magical abilities are incredibly rare. We are some of the only families that we are aware of that have any true strong ability. Sure, there are people that sense when someone is lying or have a strong gut instinct, but not able to move items like we can or cast spells." Andrei dismissed that idea with a wave of his hand. He set his tea down and his piercing blue eyes drilled into Madison. "Are you suggesting that the Halliwells have abilities?"

Gavin frowned at that idea, his mother had been the 6th of 7 daughters and had strong abilities, but none of hers had really passed down to her sons. All of their abilities had come from his father, and his brothers' children would not have strong magic either. It was just the way of the family. None of them had ever met another family that was anything close to the Drakes or the Prakenskiis.

"I don't think that." Madison protested. She shoved up off the sofa and paced the room. "As you said, magic is rare, and curses are rarer still and take a lot of effort and energy. But he has to have some strong natural barriers to stop healing magic."

Adeline shrugged and leaned deeper into the couch cushions, "I don't think it's anything to worry about. It could just be part of his personality, and unless he starts making plates float around his room just leave it alone. Melinda needs to be our main focus." She turned to Andrei, "You ran her background didn't you?"

Before Andrei would respond, Gavin surged to his feet. "You ran her?" Gavin couldn't think with the anger that was coursing through his body. He thought his brothers trusted him, and they were doing background checks on the woman that he was destined for.

"We aren't supposed to misuse our position in the sheriff's department like that! We are supposed to protect and serve!" Gavin stood in front of his brother, body braced. He would fight him over this, he knew he would.

Andrei stood and slightly flexed his own muscles, baby brother or not he wouldn't just let Gavin punch him in the face.

"Both of you chill out!" Alexi stood as well and pushed in-between his brothers. "I told him to run it. You wanted information about her, we got the information. Sit down and let's hear it."

Gavin sat back down, still glaring at his older brothers. Brody, the sixth of the seven, laid a hand on his shoulder and gave him a cautioning look. Gavin nodded and took a deep breath, but didn't say more. He noticed that the twins Gregory and Nicolas, and Stephen who was between the twins and Brody all subtly shifted closer to him. He appreciated the support from his brothers in that moment. Gavin glanced over at the Drakes and noticed that most of them were frowning over the background check as well. Gemma, the second oldest and the mediator of the bunch seemed the most upset.

Andrei pulled a folder out of his work bag that had been sitting on a side table. "I ran both Melinda and Christopher. I ran Chris before any of this happened since he was a victim in an assault and I wanted more details on him. Most of what I found for both of them matches, which isn't unusual since they were both raised in the same house." Andrei paused and rubbed at the side of his nose, Gavin remembered it was tick for when he was nervous.

"Look, some of it is weird. There was a lot of police reports where they are witnesses with various family members. All of them are in San Francisco, and most of the time they were in the company of their mother, a Piper Halliwell. Halliwell is the mother's maiden name, their father is listed as Leo Wyatt."

"Wyatt is their brother's name," Madison interrupted. "Did they all take their mother's last name?"

Andrei nodded and flipped through some papers. "Yeah, Piper and her sister Phoebe both kept their maiden name and gave it to their children. Phoebe has three daughters; Primrose, Pepper, and Poppy. Halliwell is also the grandmother's maiden name, near as I can find it was their great-grandmother who changed her last name when she married. Since then, all Halliwells kept their name except for their half-sister Paige who took her husband's name, but she was never a Halliwell by name." Andrei smiled over at the Drake sisters, "Looks like another family that doesn't take men's names."

Gavin waved his hand, motioning his brother on. "None of that is earth shattering or incredibly helpful. What else is there?"

"So now you want to know what I found?" Andrei smirked at his little brother, but sorted his papers and continued after Gavin glared at him again.

"I think the dad's information is fake or has been altered. There isn't a Leo Wyatt with this birthdate that has a valid Social Security number or school data. The only Leo Wyatt I could find born on the same day and month from the town listed died at the Battle of Guadalcanal in WWII. So, yeah I think his information is fake." Andrei shrugged and looked at his siblings, "It could be that someone entered the wrong data, or the first Leo Wyatt is actually his grandfather and some of their data got meshed. But it's odd."

Alexi gave the same shrug his brother had, "Odd, but not about Melinda. Go back to the witness statements. I find that to be more interesting."

Andrei nodded and cracked a quick grin at Gavin, "Did you know her real first name is Prudence?" Gavin gave him a disbelieving look in return. "Yeah, didn't think so. This family is obsessed with the letter P. Anyways, she was in a lot of police reports and they all abruptly stop when Piper Halliwell died. Never as a victim or as a suspect, but she did witness a lot of violent crimes or disappearances. The last police report she features in is her mother's murder investigation." Here Andrei stopped and paused. He rubbed at the side of his nose again and looked at his brother with an expression of helplessness.

"Gavin, her and Chris found their mother bleeding to death in the kitchen of their house. The crime scene photos are pretty gruesome, she died before the cops or paramedics arrived. I can't imagine what they went through witnessing that, and the case is still open. They never caught the guy that did it."

A silence fell upon the family as they sat and processed all the new information that had been discovered. How could two children live with that weighing on them?

Gavin cleared his throat, "How old was she when her mother died."

"Eleven."

Gavin stood up and walked over to the windows. He looked sightlessly out on the grounds of the large mansion his parents had built for him. A place where he had found love inside every single day, a place that had no bad memories trapped within its walls.

"Anything else?" The words came out gravelly and unlike his usual smooth voice. He could feel the emotions trapped in his chest as he thought of that wonderful young woman finding her mother bleeding out on the floor.

"Chris and Melinda both attended University of California, Santa Cruz. He got a degree in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Forestry, Melinda got a degree in small business management and finance. That's pretty much it, all that I could find about her." Andrei tapped all the papers together and stored them back in his bag.

Brody stood first and walked to his brother, "We will help you win her over. Sounds to me like this young lady could use some love and normalcy in her life."

One by one, all seven of the Prakenskii brothers and Drake sisters ranged themselves behind Gavin at the window.

"I'm going to make sure she is always safe from now on." Gavin closed his hand around his palm, where the faint burn of the mark for his soulmate shone briefly in the early morning sun.

* * *

That same sun shone on the teacups and breakfast items scattered on Melinda's kitchen table. The dark wood floor shone from the attentions her deep cleaning even earlier that morning had given it. Small herbs flourished on the windowsill and jars of ingredients peaked out from behind glass fronted cupboards.

Pepper had arrived late the night before and Melinda had wanted to bring Pepper completely up to date on what was going on so she could help Primrose look for information in San Francisco.

Chris finished his tea and wondered internally how hard it would be to convince Melinda to buy a coffeepot, he then wondered how much trouble it would be to simply buy one himself and hide it in his bedroom.

"So, Peppy. That about sums up everything that has happened here in the last few weeks. How is the family holding up?" He set down the cup and pushed the fresh fruit Melinda had dumped on his plate around. She had been pushing vitamins and minerals at him since he had gotten out of the hospital.

"So far, everything is fine. Thankfully Primrose is coming home to take over P3 again so HJ can stop having a chance to boss us around. Wyatt called on the satellite phone, he should be wrapping things up in Somalia for now and heading home in the next few weeks. The idea of the demon that attacked your mom being back has really freaked him out." Pepper poured more tea into her cup, and thought out loud as she added sugar to it. "I think he's leaving earlier than he planned to come and help with this. But this is an all-hands on deck if I ever thought of one! I mean, Melinda stopped demon hunting in high school so we need to sharpen your skills there!"

Melinda looked up sharply at that. "I haven't stopped training or using magic just because I stopped going into the Underworld looking for a fight," she snapped at Pepper.

Pepper's eyes widened at the bite in her cousin's tone and she quickly set down the spoon she had been twirling. "I didn't mean anything like that!" She soothed, laying a hand on her cousin's arm. "I didn't think before I said anything!" Pepper turned wide eyes on her sister looking for help.

Primrose snorted, "Yeah, because that isn't shocking. Before Peppy manages to shove her foot any further into her mouth, I think we should talk about the Magic School alumni event. Aunt Paige called me last night while you were still at the bar, Melinda. She wants to do a big thing." Primrose tossed her hands in the air in an attempt to lighten the mood. She earned suspicious looks from Chris and Melinda for her effort.

"Look, Aunt Paige wants to dedicate the cafeteria to Aunt Piper."

A chill dropped into the room and the tension from that statement could have been cut with a knife.

Primrose took a deep breath and trudged on. "Mom thinks it's a good idea and is on board. But they both want you guys and Wyatt to be the ones that do the unveiling. Aunt Piper came to love Magic School and all it was able to teach us and how it was able to protect us as we learned magic." She paused and looked in appeal at her sister, Pepper nodded enthusiastically and motioned for her to continue. "She especially loved being able to come and cook for the students sometimes or drop treats off for your classes. The cafeteria is the perfect place to remember her."

When stony silence met her little speech, Primrose eyeballed her sister and motioned at their cousins.

Pepper pursed her lips in thought for a minute and then spoke quickly and decisively. "Aunt Paige will do the dedication with or without your presence or approval. If you go to the school and talk to her sooner rather than later, you have a say on the name, the plaque, and the ceremony. Otherwise, it's my mom and Paige that get to do whatever they want. Think on that!" Pepper threw her napkin down on the table and stood up. She motioned for Primrose to follow her and sat down in the living room.

"What was that?" Primrose hissed at her following her into the room. "We want them to come and be involved, not get pissy and take off to sit on a bridge somewhere."

Pepper angled herself to see down the hallway and seeing that neither Chris nor Melinda had followed them, answered her sister. "I want to make them a little mad. It might make them see that they are being too emotional with this still. Naming a cafeteria shouldn't create such a tizzy in them."

Primrose signed and sat down on the couch with Pepper. "I know, but they never got counseling after Aunt Piper died. That coupled with Uncle Leo means they sometimes get into tizzys about things that should be easier to deal with. If we don't see them in like 5 minutes though, we have to go back in."

Pepper nodded in agreement and said, "Agreed. But let's see what they come up with by themselves." She pulled her phone out and paged through her Instagram while she waited, showing photos to Primrose every now and then.

* * *

Chris and Melinda sat across from each other at the kitchen table. For the first moments after Primrose and Pepper had left silence hung in their wake. The sunlight streamed across the table and glinted off the silverware laying forgotten on the table. Chris finally broke the stillness and dragged a hand through his hair.

"Are we overreacting?" he asked his sister. "Do we make it impossible for anyone to talk about Mom because we freak out every time?"

Melinda sighed and twisted her hair back on top of her head. Her green eyes met her brother's tired green eyes, and she gave a sad smile. "I think maybe we are. Mom would want us to be ok, to be normal. Freaking out every time someone brings her up isn't normal or healthy. We should go to Magic School and do this for her, it would be good to go back and leave a positive mark like that." She reached her hand out to her brother and they linked fingers.

"Well Piglet, looks like we should apologize to Pepper and Primrose. And we should start thinking of how we want to honor Mom, it needs to be something that would have made her smile." Chris smiled at his sister, and her smile turned into a brighter version.

"I would have to agree Christopher Robin, I would have to agree." Melinda turned her head to the living room and shouted down the hall. "You can come back now, we talked it out."

Primrose and Pepper came back into the kitchen and settled down at the table again, they both looked expectantly at their cousins. Melinda nodded at Chris to talk first.

"Well," he started. "We want to apologize for shutting down when you first mentioned the cafeteria for our mother, it's still hard to talk about her." Chris rubbed at the grain in the table and looked up at Primrose.

Primrose smiled and waved a hand that everything was ok.

Chris sighed and dragged his hand through his hair again making it stand on end. "We will go to Magic School and talk to Aunt Paige about the memorial, but let's just table that for now. We need to talk about how to deal with the demon attack a little more. We need to gather more information." He looked around the table at his family, they all nodded at him in support.

Melinda spoke up, "I think we should go back to where you were attacked, Chris. We might be able to get a sense of him or more evidence of what happened to him after you threw the body into the fire." She looked at Primrose, "I know that Primrose and Pepper are supposed to leave today, but I could orb us out there really quick and we could have a look around."

Chris shook his head in disagreement. "I think it's still too dangerous, there could be cops going over the ground. I have a physical therapy appointment today, so I can't go and I want to be there and protect you guys." He sighed and went back to pushing his fruit around. "I can't lose another family member to this demon."

Melinda bit her lip as she looked at her brother. "I think Primrose and I should go alone. You are still so injured and Pepper can take you to therapy. But we need to go today, we waste any more time and there won't be anything there to find."

Pepper's eyes lit up and she nodded enthusiastically, "I would love to see more of the area! We don't have to go back right away!"

Her brow furrowed, Primrose nodded, but added, "Why don't you just have HJ heal your shoulder and leg?"

Chris flushed a little and made a production of adjusting his sling, "Uh, well I've already been to the hospital and it would be harder at this point to fake the injury than just see it out. Physical therapy and everything, you know?"

Primrose nodded, but her expression didn't look convinced. "Sure, if you think that's the _easiest_ way to deal with it. Melinda and I can orb over to the attack site right after we clean up."

Agreement around the table rang out, and they finished their breakfasts with more positive topics.

* * *

Primrose followed Melinda up the stairs to Melinda's bedroom. The actual guest room was up here too, and that was where Primrose had been staying for the few days that she had been in town. The guest bedroom had been a really lovely room with sea-green walls and a handmade quilt covering the bed, but Primrose hadn't really ventured into her cousin's room. Melinda hadn't really slept last night and Primrose had a feeling that Gavin Prakenskii was at the center of that.

Melinda's bedroom was a light and airy space. Light rose colored walls had pencil and ink drawings of San Francisco and other cities covering them. The brass head and foot boards of the bed complemented the lacy bedspread and the heaps of pillows that covered the entire top of the bed. It was a female space, and very different from the smaller, cramped room that they had shared growing up in the Manor. It smelled of Melinda's honeysuckle perfume, a similar scent to what Aunt Piper had worn when they had been children.

Primrose skirted the dresser and the small lady's table that Melinda used to put on her makeup and followed her cousin into the closet. Melinda shoved her dresses to one side of the rod and laid her hand along the back wall of the closet. Primrose's eyes widened as she watched the wall glow a little and a panel open up.

Inside the secret compartment knives, a bow and arrows, potions, potion ingredients, and crystals laid on organized shelves. Melinda took a holster off one shelf and slide two knives into either side before shrugging into it. She adjusted the straps across her shoulders and looked up into her cousin's shocked eyes.

"What?" she asked.

"Where did all this come from?" Primrose wanted to know. She pointed at the rows and rows of weapons and potions. "You made it very clear that you didn't want to keep fighting in high school, you even refused to attend the Senior Attack Magic class. Aunt Paige almost didn't let you graduate since you hadn't finished the coursework."

Melinda bit her lip, and played with the shoulder straps on the holster. "I know," she whispered. "I went through a phase and thought that magic would just kill everyone I love. Aunt Paige convinced me otherwise, but I took more self-defense than attack classes to graduate. I took some more classes in college and kinda, uh… Well, I came up with all this. I'm not going to walk into a situation without everything that I might need at some point. I didn't want magic to overtake my life, but I didn't give it up as much as people thought I had."

"Well, then. Ok, good."

Melinda smiled and handed another holster to her cousin. "Suit up, we don't know what we are walking into."

Primrose gave a weak smile and grabbed a knife off the shelf and took the potions that Melinda handed her. "What kind of potions are these?"

"Your usual garden variety vanquishing potion, smoke screen, and one that causes a bang. Should over any nasty situation that we could get into."

The cousins shared dangerous smiles and Melinda shut the secret compartment door with a bang.

* * *

Melinda and Primrose reformed deep in the Northern California forest. Their sturdy hiking boots crunched burnt wood and leaves under their feet. As far as their eyes could see the forest was burnt and destroyed. Melinda could see small signs of green already poking up through the damage, it gave her hope that they took could recover from the blows that had been dealt to them.

She unzipped the light jacket she had tossed over her shirt and crouched near the ground. They needed to find the exact spot where Chris had been injured and see if they could find anything. She studied the tracks and slowly followed them across the small patch of the forest to an area that had been trampled by many different sets of feet.

"Here!" she called to her cousin, "It was here that Chris was attacked."

Primrose quickly stepped over to where Melinda was still crouched and joined her studying the ground. Primrose held her hands over the spot and closed her eyes. It wasn't easy to use her empathy and visions to see the past, but it was possible.

Primrose concentrated first on Chris, she knew that he had been here and suffered so there should be an imprint left in the ground. She caught flashes of the attack and Chris's fear, but couldn't get a read on the attacker.

Primrose tried for several minutes before sighing and curling her hands into fists. She opened her eyes and stood back up.

Melinda had waited quietly, but looked at her in expectation.

"There isn't anything that I can get from the demon. I don't know how he does it, but he managed to cloak his essence within the man that he possessed. I got flashes of Zane and his fear and confusion, but not the creature that was controlling him. The demon has to be powerful, Melinda."

Melinda nodded and jammed her hands into the jacket pockets. "I knew that I would be a long shot, but we had to try. Let's look around before we leave there could be a more normal type of clue."

Primrose nodded and they circled out from the attack spot.

"Haven't the police been all over this area?" Primrose asked as they searched.

"Yeah, but they were mostly looking to either confirm Chris's story or prove it a lie. They wouldn't have been looking for anything to trace back to the attacker since Chris said he was consumed in the fire."

Melinda lifted a burnt log to see if anything was under it when she heard men's voices carrying in the wind. She quickly and quietly darted over to her cousin and grabbed her arm. When Primrose swung around and looked at her, she put her finger to her lips and orbed them out.

* * *

I really hoped that everyone enjoyed this update! I'm having a lot of fun with this story and reviews encourage me to write faster!


	6. Chapter 6

Here is the next installment! Hope everyone enjoys!

* * *

Pepper smiled as the breeze off the ocean came through the open car window and ruffled her hair, she would have sang along with the car radio too, but Chris had snapped off the music when she had started driving. He had muttered something under his breath about her not needing any distractions and then had gripped the chicken stick with a white-knuckled fist. Pepper had decided to ignore Chris and the fact that his good leg kept pressing on a non-existent brake and enjoy threading her way around the mountain switch-backs.

Pepper was quite aware that most of her family thought she was a terrible driver, but really it had to be Wyatt's fault since he had been the one to teach her to drive. She started to reach for her phone to check the directions and felt it taken out of her hand by Chris. She looked over at him with raised eyebrows.

"Peppy, I have already survived one near death experience this month and I really don't want it to be two. Why are you trying to use your phone?" Chris continued to hold it away from her. The idea behind Wyatt teaching her to drive was that he was a little better than Phoebe, but it would appear that he had passed on a lot of his bad driving habits to Pepper.

"I wanted to check that I was driving in the right direction!" Pepper blew her breath out, fluttering her hair even more. "Geez, get in one or two little accidents and no one trusts a girl anymore." She continued to mutter to herself as Chris pulled up the directions. He directed her the rest of the way and said silent prayers as they finally pulled into a parking space and she turned off the car.

Pepper swung her purse over her shoulder and helped Chris make it up to the door. He had a cane, but hadn't quite mastered how to use it appropriately. She glanced up and saw that a red-haired young woman was hurrying through the lobby to open the door.

Chris quickly tried to straighten and lifted his arm from around Pepper's shoulders. She looked at him in surprise and saw that he was smiling at the woman.

"Chris, come in please," she held open the door and then reached out to shake Pepper's hand. "I'm Madison Drake, Chris's physical therapist."

"Oh, how nice to meet you," Pepper quickly shook her hand and smiled. Chris had not mentioned to anyone how pretty his doctor was, and she snuck a look at him quickly, he hadn't stopped smiling. "I'm Pepper Halliwell, Chris's cousin. I came up to bring him some of his things and decided to help out Melinda by driving him today."

Pepper inclined her head at her cousin and raised her eyebrows ever so slightly. She hadn't seen Chris act like this around a girl since he was in high school and didn't want the family to know he was asking Ashley Brightstone to prom. Pepper very carefully reached out with her Cupid side and tried to see if Madison was interested in Chris, she got a little zing and backed off before Madison noticed anything. The plot thickened, it would appear that his doctor was just as interested in Chris as he was in her. Pepper mentally resolved to find out more about this doctor, not just anyone was good enough for her cousin. She tuned back into the conversation and noticed that Chris was getting ready to head back to the workout room.

"You can stay out here Pepper." He gestured at the lobby waiting area where chairs and sofas were grouped. Pepper noticed the new versions of her favorite magazines and happily wandered over. She had no real interest in watching Chris work out, but she was interested in learning more about Madison. Pepper waited till they had gone through the far door, and then using the magazine has a shield scanned the waiting area for another doctor or nurse. A girl that had managed to catch Chris's attention was an unusual circumstance, and if Chris was going to get mad about her asking then he really didn't know her at all did he? If he had wanted to keep his feelings a secret, he shouldn't have had a Cupid drive him to his appointment.

Pepper's eyes widened when she saw a young man wearing a lab coat come out of another door and wander over to the receptionist. She could feel the longing emanating from him, and immediately her Cupid side was feeling a pull to help him. She could also sense that he was terribly shy, and that the receptionist liked him, but didn't think that he saw her as anything more than a friend. She could almost feel her fingers itching to grab him and sit him down to talk through how he should win her over.

Pepper lowered the magazine to her lap and made sure to shoot a quick friendly smile at him as he glanced her way. He gave a small smile in return and had the manners to stop and ask her how her day was.

"I'm good, thank you. I'm Pepper Halliwell. My cousin is actually in with Madison Drake doing his first appointment." Pepper lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "Is she a good doctor? He gave us all such a scare when he got hurt, I just want to make sure that this is the right place for him." She smiled at him and patted the seat next to her.

The young man smiled and sat down next to her, "Maddie is a great doctor I'm sure your cousin will be fine!" He held out his hand, "I'm Tom Henderson, another one of the physical therapists. I've known Maddie since we were children, actually we went all the way through school together."

"Oh," Pepper innocently widened her eyes. "Are you guys involved? I thought when I saw you with the girl at the desk…"

"Oh no," Tom flushed a rather dark red and stuttered a little. "Madison isn't seeing anyone, I think her dad scares off anyone that would be interested. And, uh, well Sarah and I aren't dating. Well…" And Tom who had never even told anyone that he had a crush on Sarah, just found it all tumbling out. There was something about this young lady with the dark brown eyes that seemed to be so willing to listen to his struggle to ask Sarah out.

"I wanted to ask her out when she first started working here, but she kinda had a boyfriend and then when she didn't I just couldn't find the words to talk to her. I really like her, but I just can't find a way to say that to her. It's got to be too late to tell her though, right? Girls don't just wait around forever for someone."

Pepper smiled and pulled a pad of paper from her purse, this was actually what she had been born to do. She was a Cupid and destined to help people find the right person to fall in love with, and then get them there. She had been working at her father's matchmaking business for nearly 3 years now as she also went to school. She was almost done with her college degree, and her dad had said that she could join the firm full-time.

When Chris and Madison returned 45 minutes later, Pepper had just finishing outlining Tom's 5-Step plan to asking Sarah out on a real date. Chris smiled and shook his head. He knew that he couldn't leave any of the girls alone around single men without them at least trying to match them up. He gave a small cough and Pepper looked up with a smile.

"It was so nice to talk to you, Tom. Just remember what I told you and stay calm." Pepper handed him the sheet of paper, and gave him a quick hug goodbye.

"Hey Chris," she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "How was your session? Are you feeling better and more mobile? Wanna run a marathon yet?" Pepper gave a quick laugh.

"I'm feeling about the same, Pepper. Can we head home? I want to lay down and get some rest." Chris passed a hand over his forehead and wiped away some sweat.

Frowns passed over Pepper and Madison's faces, Madison reached forward and grabbed his arm. "We should get you to the car, I think we overdid it today."

The two girls worked him out to the car and got him down into the passenger seat. Pepper frowned some more as she looked at her cousin's pale face. This had gotten to be ridiculous, HJ should just heal Chris. They could move him back to San Francisco if he was that worried about people thinking it was odd he wasn't as injured as he should be. She turned to Madison, "Is there anything that I should be on the lookout for? Odd reactions or symptoms that mean he needs to go back to the hospital?"

Madison pushed hair out of her face and thought before she spoke. "He should be fine, he was pushing more today than I should have let him. Chris knows that he can't go back to work this summer, but it's like he has to be back in top form for some reason."

"Chris has never liked being sick or hurt for any reason," Pepper admitted. "I'll keep an eye on him and tell Mellie and Prim to do the same. Primrose and I are hanging out for a few more days anyway, wanted to see where Melinda had decided to put down some roots. Well," Pepper held out her hand. "It was really nice to meet you, Dr. Drake."

Madison shook Pepper's hand, she thought she felt something like an electric shock race up her arm at the contact. "Call me Madison, please. I hope to see you around."

She waved them off as Pepper pulled out of the parking lot and the frown returned as she thought of Pepper Halliwell. She had felt that electric shock before, when one of her family members was trying to use power on her. Generally, it was when one of the empaths was trying to read her, and now she felt it from Pepper.

Madison turned back into the building and was absolutely shocked when she walked into the lobby and saw Sarah writing down her number and address for Tom while agreeing to a dinner and movie date for the next night. She had known that Tom had deep feelings for Sarah, but she had also known that he didn't have the nerve to actually ask her out.

She followed Tom into the staff breakroom where he was smiling ear to ear and clutching the little piece of paper tight in his fist.

"Tom! I'm so proud of you. How did you work up the nerve to finally ask Sarah out?" Madison opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, attempting to look casual.

"Uh, your patient's cousin was really helpful. She had a lot of great advice on how to approach her and be calm enough to ask her out." Tom shrugged and blushed a little. He glanced down at the piece of paper again and smiled, he couldn't believe that he had finally asked Sarah out.

"Really?" Madison twisted open the water. "It must have been great advice for it to work so quickly."

Tom didn't seem to notice the suspicion in Madison's voice, he was looking through movie times on his phone. "Yeah, she just seemed to know exactly what would help me out," he laughed and glanced up. "It's like she was psychic or something, right?" Tom grabbed a soda and headed out to meet his next patient and see what movie Sarah was interested in. He laughed once more and waved as the door closed behind him.

Madison leaned against the counter deep in thought, she tapped her fingers against the water bottle and frowned. The questions about the Halliwell family seemed to be stacking up instead of being answered. Gavin had said that Melinda was his soul mate, but they clearly needed to learn more about her family, there was more to the story here than appeared on the surface.

* * *

Pepper glanced over at Chris as she drove them home. She was glad to see that there was more color in his face and that the lines of strain on his face had eased. She had been genuinely been worried about him when they had started back.

"You can scoot the seat back more if you need to," Pepper said as she navigated the first set of switchbacks.

"Huh?" Chris seemed to snap out of his thought at the sound of her voice.

"The seat," Pepper repeated. "You can move it back if you need more room."

"Oh, I'm good. I feel a lot better now than I did when we left." Chris stretched his good leg a little and tried to put more weight on that side in the seat. He had overdone it at therapy, but he knew he needed to get back in shape. The family was in danger everyday that one of them was down, it wouldn't take long for demons to catch wind that he was hurt. He glanced over at Pepper's speedometer and frowned. His hand slowly crept back toward the chicken stick and gripped it tightly.

Pepper felt annoyance creep up her spine at his reaction. She had literally gotten zero speeding tickets or been in an accident of any kind in 3 months! That was a new record and no one in the family was giving her the recognition that that accomplishment deserved. She glanced at Chris again and saw his hand whiten on the bar as she navigated a turn and felt her anger boil over.

"I noticed that you really seemed to like Madison. Any reason you decided not to mention that you had a hot young doctor to anyone?"

Chris felt his jaw tighten in anger, he had made a point of over the years of not telling his family about his relationships. This moment, trapped in Pepper's car had just climbed to the top of the list of reasons why.

"Stay out of it, Pepper. It is none of your concern."

"Oh really? Because it looks to me like your crush on Madison Drake is the reason you refuse to let HJ heal you! The FAMILY is all in more danger because you aren't at a hundred percent right now. So pull your head out of your ass and let someone heal you and then just ask her out!" Pepper shouted at her cousin. She felt the anger, concern, and fear that had been swirling in her since she heard of Chris's attack. She still couldn't believe that Chris was refusing to let anyone heal him.

"LEAVE IT ALONE!" Chris bellowed back. He normally never yelled at one of his cousins or Melinda. But, he could not handle this conversation right now, it was bringing up issues that he didn't want to talk about. He felt the deep guilt over being hurt start to swell back up and stress clamped down on his head and shoulders.

Pepper's eyes widened in shock at Chris's tone. For all the crap they had slung at him growing up, he had always just shrugged or walked away. She couldn't remember once in her life when Chris had actually yelled at her, Wyatt would yell, but it was usually empty threats.

Pepper snapped her mouth shut and gave all her attention to the road. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him, and felt tears begin to gather in her throat and sting her eyes. She was terrible at confrontation and usually cried when someone was mad at her.

Chris sighed as he heard Pepper sniffle. He knew that she tended to cry when someone was mad at her or yelled at her. He ran his hand through his hair and shifted in his seat. "I'm sorry I yelled Peps. But, I really don't want to talk about it." He leaned over and patted her arm, "I'm really sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Pepper managed to squeak out. She could still feel the tears gathering. "I don't want to talk anymore." She leaned over and turned on the radio to drown out any more attempts of Chris trying to apologize. Chris, for his part, didn't try and turn it off for once.

* * *

Melinda weeded her garden in the bright sunlight. Pepper had texted that she and Chris were on their way back to the house and Melinda had wanted some quiet time before they arrived. Despite the fact that it was technically the end of summer in Northern California, her flowers and plants still thrived. It was one of her gifts that was less obvious, the ability to keep plants thriving and healthy. Her mom had had the same gift to a much lesser extent. Apparently it was one of the reasons she had been such a good cook, she had known the right ingredients to pick.

Melinda smiled as she looked over the symbols of her family that she had planted when she had first bought the cottage, the poppies, peppers, primroses, pennyroyal, and patience geraniums always made her smile when she was missing her family. She could sit out here and feel their presence and remember what it meant to be a Halliwell. No matter the distance, it the end of the day she was a Halliwell witch and nothing would ever change that.

She looked up when she heard tires crunching on the gravel driveway, she had expected to see Pepper's cute little sedan and was surprised to see a police cruiser pull up. She leapt up from the bed she had been working on and quickly walked to the gate. Melinda knew that Pepper had finally gone some months without getting pulled over by the police, but the switchbacks were dangerous. She mentally berated herself for not just taking Chris to his appointment herself or making Primrose do it. Granted, they had still been in the woods when they had left, and Primrose was now teleconferencing with P3, but still.

Melinda saw Gavin get out of the car and slowed her steps. She now had an idea that there wasn't anything wrong with any member of her family, but that she was in a little trouble. She couldn't deny to herself anymore that she thought he was attractive and she got a pull in her gut when she saw him. But, she also couldn't keep herself from thinking of all the issues and problems that her family had with love and relationships.

"Hey," Gavin stopped at the gate and gave her a small wave. "I was driving by and thought I would see how everything is going. With, Chris and all," he added hastily at her slight frown.

"Oh," Melinda said awkwardly. "Well, he's fine. Pepper and him should be back soon from his physical therapy appointment if you wanted to see him." Melinda couldn't figure out how to feel at seeing him. She had been so shut down to the idea of dating that she couldn't figure out what do with her hands or anything. She was torn between keeping the gate tightly shut and opening it to invite him in.

"Ah, no I don't really need to ask him anything right now." Gavin drummed his fingers along the top of the gate, he couldn't figure out why he found it so hard to talk to this woman. Normally he had all the moves, but the scent of her perfume and the burning in his hand was distracting him.

"You have a really nice garden," he said with a broad sweeping motion toward the house. "Do you spend a lot of time working on it?"

"Thank you," Melinda beamed a smile at him and Gavin felt his heart give a little lurch at the sight. "I do spend a lot of time on it, but it doesn't feel like work when you're doing something you enjoy."

Feeling positive that he managed to say something right, Gavin tried asking for date.

"Hey, I know this might not be a welcome question." Gavin felt sweat start to slide now his back as her smile faded and Melinda started to look more nervous. "I was wondering if you would like to grab a cup of coffee or walk on the beach? My family has access to the private area of the beach from the Drake House and we could walk and see the seals. My aunt Abby is a marine biologist and she said they will be in along the beach the next few days."

Melinda hesitated and looked his earnest face. As she thought of saying yes, she could hear the echoes of her mother and father fighting in the back of her head, but as she thought of saying no she could also hear Primrose reminding her that love is different for all people. She took a deep breath and took the plunge.

"I would love to walk on the beach with you." Melinda finally said. She smiled and Gavin quickly returned it.

"Great, I'll come and pick you up around 2? I know you work nights and I don't want to make you late for the club."

"2 works for me. Here, let me give you my number in case anything comes up and you have to cancel or anything." Melinda leaned over the gate and gave Gavin the number for her cell phone. As she was finishing, she saw Pepper's car pull up. She started to wave when she could see that Pepper had been crying and Chris looked guilt stricken.

Melinda frowned and pushed the gate open to walk over to the car, Pepper tended to cry really easily, but Chris hadn't been the reason behind that since middle school.

"What happened?" She asked as she put her arm around Pepper's shoulders.

Pepper gave a huge sniff and started crying again, "Chris yelled at me." Pepper grabbed onto Melinda and cried harder. She looked over at Chris helplessly and he gave a shrug and started to limp back to the house.

Gavin spoke from behind her and scared her. She had forgotten that he was there. "I've got to head back to patrol. Do you need help with her?" He gestured at Pepper and Melinda could clearly see that as any man, he was scared of the crying girl.

"I've got her, Pepper cries all the time this isn't unusual." Melinda assured him. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon."

Gavin heaved a thankful sigh and waved back to his cruiser. He glanced back as he started down the road and saw Primrose come out of the house to help Melinda. He wondered what could have possibly happened to cause that scene. He decided to put that out of his mind and focus on his first date with Melinda. His family was having a big family dinner that night and he could talk to his cousins and see what was a good idea and what would be a bad idea.

Melinda held Pepper as she watched the cruiser disappear down the road. She hoped that she hadn't made a mistake agreeing to the beach date, but knew she would feel stupid calling and canceling it.

She felt Primrose come up behind her and sent up a prayer of thanks. Primrose was one of the few people that was able to calm Pepper down when she got upset.

"Ok, what's going on? Chris has just now locked himself in his little bedroom and you are out here sobbing. Did something bad happen at physical therapy? Did you hit something with the car?" Primrose pulled Pepper upright and handed her a tissue to wipe her face with. "No more crying, calm down, lets go and sit in the garden and figure this out."

The girls walked to a little table with benches that Melinda had near the back door to the kitchen. She liked to sit out there in the summer and drink her coffee, or eat when the weather was really good.

Pepper sat down and wiped at her face, "I'm sorry for being such a mess and scaring off the hot guy, Mellie. I got in a fight with Chris and he yelled at me." She turned sad eyes to her family that appealed for understanding. "He has never yelled at me before. I know I upset him, but he has never yelled at me before."

Melinda sighed and rubbed Pepper's back. "Look, Chris is hurt, in pain, and frustrated that he can't firejump for the rest of the season. He's been a little more touchy recently and I think we need to remember that when we are teasing him. I'm sure he is sorry that he made you cry."

Pepper nodded, "He said he was sorry in the car. But, I really don't understand why he won't let HJ heal him. A demon could attack at any moment and he could get really hurt because he isn't at a hundred percent." Melinda stiffened and leaned away from her cousins. Primrose noticed and raised an eyebrow.

"We have already talked about this," Melinda said shortly. "His injuries are part of a criminal case and he has a doctor here that is treating him. If we healed him now there would be repercussions that we can't even think of. Let's table the healing Chris argument, now." She stood up and started walking toward her gardening tools that she had abandoned earlier.

An awkward silence filled with tension settled over the garden, with Melinda at one end and her cousins sitting at the other.

"Do you still want to go to town?" Primrose asked Pepper. "Melinda and I couldn't find anything in the woods and we think it would be a good idea if one of us stayed in Sea Haven and helped keep an eye out for the demon."

Pepper slowly nodded and looked over at her cousin's stiff back, "Yeah, we need groceries anyway and we need to get a better lay of the land too." She inclined her chin toward Melinda and raised her eyebrows at her sister. Primrose nodded and got up to walk over to Melinda who was now violently removing deadheads from her flowers.

"Mellie, we wondered if you wanted to go to town with me and Pepper. I saw that Gavin was here, is there anything going on that we could have some girl time over?" Primrose knelt down next to Melinda and laid a hand on her shoulder.

Primrose was glad to see that Melinda hadn't been crying, but she had the same look on her face that she got when Uncle Leo had been to visit. One of blankness that didn't convey how upset she was inside.

"Girl time?" Melinda asked, she removed another deadhead and dropped it in the basket.

"Yeah, like in high school when we would stay up all night talking about boys and eating too much chocolate. Except now, it's shopping for groceries and home before 6 so you can go to work!"

Melinda sighed and looked over at her cousin, the hopeful look on her face made her cave. "Ok, yeah we can go into town. There's a little shopping area with a quilting store, yarn, and blown glass. Pepper will like that and hopefully she will forget that Chris made her mad and we can have a calmer evening than we did afternoon."

Primrose smiled and gave a thumbs up behind Melinda's back at Pepper.

The girls were walking down the sidewalk of Sea Haven's business district and eating ice cream a few hours later. As all things with family, the fight had blown over nearly as soon as it had started. They had peered into several stores and Melinda had bought an enormous amount of fabric at the quilting store. Pepper had purchased a glass vase for Phoebe's birthday and several ornaments she would hide until Christmas.

Primrose and Pepper were unsuccessfully trying to pull out of Melinda what had happened with Gavin earlier that afternoon before they went to the grocery store. Primrose had gleefully filled Pepper in on who he was, and both half- Cupids were determined to get Melinda to agree to go out with him.

Melinda laughed and pitched the last of her napkins in the trash can, "I'm not telling you what happened. You two are hopeless romantics and you will drive me crazy with all your ideas and stuff!"

She laughed again and shifted one of the bags she had on her arm and was about to suggest they stop at the car to drop stuff off before heading to the grocery store when she saw Brody heading down the street to them. He was wearing his sheriff's department uniform and she hoped that he was on his way somewhere and wouldn't stop and talk to her. It would just add fuel to the fire that Primrose and Pepper were building.

To her dismay, Brody was heading straight for them and stopped in front of them.

"Hey Melinda, how are you? Are these your cousins?" Brody gave them a smile and pulled his sunglasses off. He hooked them in the V of his shirt and held his hand out to Primrose.

"I'm good, and yeah these are my cousins Primrose and Pepper. They are staying for a little to help me get Chris to his doctor's appointments and then heading back to help Aunt Phoebe with her business and the bar we have, P3."

Brody laughed, "Is P a big family thing? Aren't you a little left out?" He shook Primrose and Pepper's hand and Pepper flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave him a big smile.

Melinda shot her a look and responded to Brody's question with a smile. "Well, I didn't actually get left out. My actual first name is Prudence, it was my aunt's name and she passed away before any of us were born. I was the first girl born so I was Prudence, but everyone decided to call me Melinda." She gave a shrug and laughed. "I actually prefer Melinda, I think Prudence is a little old fashioned."

Brody laughed as well, "I would probably prefer not being Prudence as well." He started to say something else, but was drowned out by the sound of a motorcycle roaring down the road. He turned thinking it was his uncle or a member of the Torpedo Ink that his uncle rode with. But it wasn't a rider that he recognized.

"Is that who I think it is?" Pepper leaned forward and quickly fixed her hair again. She gave a huge smile and wave as the biker pulled over where they were standing in the sidewalk.

The man swung off his bike. His jacket was bare of any rockers and just had the image of a wolf baying at a full moon sewn into the back. He reached up and pulled off the helmet, revealing a handsome face and messy honey-brown hair. He stashed the helmet in the compartment on the back and walked over to them.

Brody's eyebrows nearly climbed into his hair as the stranger smiled and swung Melinda into a huge hug and gave her a quick smacking kiss.

"Ethan!" She cried out and gave him a hard hug in return. "What on earth are you doing in Sea Haven?"

"It's a work thing for the family. What are all of you doing here? I heard that you opened a new club here, but I didn't know that Primrose and Pepper had moved up too." He turned and gave them strong hugs as well, but Brody noticed that neither of them got a kiss.

"We are just visiting until Chris is better," Pepper answered. She gave him another wide smile and played with her hair.

"What happened to Chris? I've been traveling a lot for work and haven't checked in for updates in a while." Ethan leaned back against his bike and looked at the girls with concern.

"It's a whole thing. You can come over for dinner tonight and we'll explain. Oh, sorry this is Brody Prakenskii. He works for the sheriff's department." Melinda gestured toward Brody and Ethan stood up to shake his hand.

"Nice to meet you," Ethan said. "I'm Ethan Woolton. We are old family friends, and I knew that Melinda was living up here so when work brought me here I thought I would check on her. Wanted to see the new club too, I heard that's awesome."

"Do you kiss all your old family friends?" Brody asked. He gave Melinda a long look. She frowned back at him not understanding why he seemed so mad.

"Well, Piglet and I did go to prom together her senior year," Ethan sent her a lazy smile. Melinda gave him a scolding look and he tipped back his head and laughed. "Oh, Mellie you know I have to yank your chain every so often!"

Brody's mouth thinned into a line and he continued to frown as he looked at Ethan.

Melinda shook her head, but a smile tugged at her lips. "I'm happy to see you, but really Ethan? You are so outrageous." She turned and looked at her cousins and they also shook their heads in amusement. "Well, the guest rooms are all full currently, but the couch is open and more than comfortable. Where are you staying?"

Ethan gave a shrug, "I was planning on camping, but staying with you is definitely preferred. I have everything I need on my bike. Are you heading back now?"

Melinda shook her head, "No, I still need to go to the grocery store and I need to grab more things now that you are here. You still eat like a teenage boy. But, here," she pulled a notepad out of her purse and scrawled down her address. "Chris is home, if you call him before you head up it'll give him time to get to the door and let you in."

Ethan took the paper and folded it into his jacket pocket, but looked at Melinda with a frown. "Why does Chris need time to get to the door? Actually, why is he here? It's still fire season."

Pepper and Primrose both started to open their mouths to answer when Melinda cut them off. "It's a really long story, and probably one that we should all tell together. Over dinner?"

Ethan slowly nodded and gave them all hugs again, "Sure, dinner is fine." He held out a hand to Brody. "It was nice to meet you."

"Same, nice to meet you. Hope to see you around while you're in town."

Brody shook his hand and tried to get a read off the guy at the same time. He couldn't sense any lust or attraction to Melinda, but he still didn't trust him. He had seen Melinda's house and there wasn't that much room between the couch and her room. Brody quickly said goodbye to the girls as well and returned to his interrupted patrol. He was debating about telling Gavin, but the town was small enough that someone would tell him that Melinda had a guest staying with her and that the guest was a man. It would be interesting to see how that would go.

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